Lowering the barrier to Kubernetes
A decade in, Kubernetes remains complex, even using managed services. However, efforts are underway to build abstractions that improve developer experience and accessibility. “Kubernetes tooling is helping bridge skill gaps by providing intuitive interfaces and out-of-the-box insights, which lowers the expertise barrier,” says Komodor’s Shwartz.
Tools are also evolving to make cluster visibility more accessible, with one-step installations for observability functions. “Before, you had to actually augment your application code and manually add configurations by changing the manifest,” explains New Relic’s Sius. User-friendly observability options now help operators better understand the health of their systems and identify performance or reliability problems with far less effort.
AI and machine learning also are playing a role in enhancing user experience with Kubernetes management. For instance, Andreas Grabner, devops activist at Dynatrace and a CNCF ambassador, shares how generative AI-driven tools have made it easier to observe and diagnose Kubernetes clusters, aiding root cause analysis with practical information to optimize systems.
Kubernetes is cemented into the future of cloud-native infrastructure. In this world, edge will become a more common deployment pattern, and containerization will power the future of AI-native applications. To address cloud-native complexity, many enterprises have placed their hopes in platform engineering to consolidate tools and create paved roads that improve the usability of cloud-native architecture.
By 2025, 95% of applications will be deployed on cloud-native platforms, estimates Gartner. But while the cloud-native ecosystem seems at its zenith, plenty of enterprises still haven’t made the shift to containers, signaling room for growth.
There’s still plenty of room for exciting growth for Kubernetes. Growth not only in terms of adoption, but also the underlying platform, the tools and add-ons, and the use cases. Designed to orchestrate containers at massive scale, the descendant of Google’s Borg seems destined to become a standard deployment pattern for all kinds of workloads. In any case, the race between usability and complexity seems bound to continue.
Will Kubernetes become mature and easy in the coming years, or a rebellious and unwieldy teen? Time will tell.