Use of Kubernetes and Containers in Cloud Hosting

Technology is advancing and growing more complex every day in this era of quick advancement and constant innovation. Cloud hosting has now become easier than ever and more effective with the introduction of cloud technology and has taken the market by storm. Since the adoption of containerization and the use of containers for application development and deployment, hosting has become more streamlined. Cloud Hosting enables much quicker and more efficient deployment of containerized applications through Kubernetes. You may learn more about Kubernetes and containers' roles in cloud hosting from this knowledge base.

Table of Content:

1. What is Kubernetes

2. What are Containers

3. Advantages of Containers

3.1. Isolation

3.2. Portability

3.3. Efficiency

3.4. Rapid Deployment

4. Stages of Container Management

4.1. Image Creation

4.2. Container Deployment

4.3. Container Management

4.4. Container Retirement

5. Advantages of Kubernetes in Cloud Hosting

1. What is Kubernetes

Kubernetes is a tool that focuses on running and coordinating containerized applications on a cluster of physical machines or virtual machines across public, private or hybrid cloud. It is a platform designed to fully manage the complete lifecycle of container applications and services using methods that provide predictability, scalability, and high availability.

2. What are containers

We can define containers as lightweight standalone units that require lesser computing power and lesser memory. They combine an application altogether and its dependencies such as application code, runtime, libraries, and system tools into a single package that can be deployed and run into any environment throughout development and production.

3. Advantages of Containers

There are many advantages that containers offer while running and deploying applications on cloud, some of the advantages are isolation, portability, efficiency, and rapid deployment. Let us delve into the advantages and know more about them.

Isolation

Containers ensure that all the applications and its dependencies run independently of the host system. Isolation of containerized applications ensures that there is no conflict between applications and thus, improves security.

Portability

Any system that supports containerization can easily run containers and makes it easy to shift containers from one environment to another. Containers can be easily shifted from an on-prise environment to cloud, making them portable and easy to use.

Efficiency

Containers are extremely efficient as they share the host operating system�s kernel and consume much lesser resources. This reduces the workload of running multiple virtual machines in a single server and makes the development and deployment more efficient. 

Rapid Deployment

Since containers are small packed units, they can be configured and deployed within a second in any environment. Containers have significantly smaller footprints, they have capability to start quickly, and have a faster creation process.

4. Stages of Container Management

There are essentially 4 stages of container management that are image creation, container deployment, container management, and container retirement. The 4 stages are explained below individually.

Image Creation:

This is the first step in the process of containerization where a container image is created that contains an application�s blueprint along with all its dependencies. This image serves as an individual element and can be saved for later use.

Container Deployment

Post the image creation, the container is deployed in a suitable environment where it is constantly monitored for its performance.

Container Management

After the container is deployed, it can be scaled up or down, monitored, and managed as per the requirement.

Container Retirement

The final stage where containers are retired when they are no longer needed is called container retirement. This can be either because the application has been decommissioned or a new update has been rolled out.

5. Advantages of Kubernetes in Cloud Hosting

Kubernetes provides multiple features and advantages that make it a perfect choice for Cloud Hosting. Some of the strong reasons for using Kubernetes are listed below.

Automated Scaling

Since scalability is one of the most important and essential aspects of Cloud Hosting, Kubernetes plays a key role in serving the purpose. Kubernetes has the capability to successfully enable the scaling of containers to resolve performance bottlenecks and increase performance.

Extensive Availability

Another important aspect of Cloud Hosting is maximum availability by ensuring minimum downtime. Kubernetes successfully ensures maximum uptime with state-of-the-art features like self-healing and Load Balancing. This means during the failure of any container node, Kubernetes automatically replaces the faulty node with a new one that enhances efficiency and reduces downtime significantly. 

Effective Deployment

During the Application Development lifecycle, software is developed and deployed continuously to test their efficiency and effectiveness. Many developers and programmers prefer Kubernetes as it streamlines the Application Deployment process by eliminating irregularities and complexities.

Easy Integration with DevOps

As we all know DevOps is the practice of combining development and operations to ensure Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. Kubernetes promotes a DevOps culture by fostering effective collaboration between development and operations teams. Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines can be easily integrated with Kubernetes, enabling automated testing and seamless application delivery that further boosts development cycles and improves software quality

Self-Healing Capabilities

During cloud hosting, it is practically impossible to encounter failures. Either your hardware can fail or networks can become unstable leading to disruptions and downtime. Kubernetes is loaded with effective self-healing mechanisms that help applications recover from these failures automatically. This ensures that applications are robust and can tolerate failures which ultimately helps reduce downtime and the need for manual intervention. 

Effective Monitoring and Observation

Kubernetes is highly capable of maintaining the health and performance of cloud-hosted applications. Kubernetes provides the scope for integrations with popular monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, and Jaeger that can enable tracking of performance and monitoring it continuously.

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