Fairwinds | Blog

The Secret to Running Scalable Kubernetes Clusters is Here

Written by Kendall Miller | Feb 15, 2022 8:06:41 PM

Over the past couple weeks, we’ve been running a series of blogs on the five key enablers of successful Kubernetes service ownership. From security to compliance to cost optimization and reliability, an effective ownership model within an organization can bring with it tons of valuable benefits. And one of the most underappreciated of all these optimized areas is scalability, a key factor in business growth. In Kubernetes, scalability refers to a cluster’s ability to continue growing while still maintaining a certain level of service. Creating scalable and fault-tolerant applications using Kubernetes comes from the optimization of all these areas, and scalability is no exception. 

Read our recent white paper, 5 Ways to Optimize Your Kubernetes Ownership, for more details on these key benefits!

How does a strong service ownership affect scalability?

Security, compliance, cost, reliability—they are all desirable outcomes of proper service ownership of Kubernetes. Furthermore, these benefits all contribute in some way to an organization’s ability to effectively scale, especially when baked into a process of best practices over time. For example, with the right application sizing (CPU and memory requests and limits), applications can scale effectively. And with proper security configurations, breaches in containers are not a concern. When policy is enforced, applications can scale while compliance is maintained. In this way, all of these benefits are interwoven to create the fabric of comprehensive and highly successful Kubernetes ownership.

For practitioners who use the open source software of Kubernetes to develop and run applications, scaling for proper deployment and management is critical. With increased scalability and dependability, you can benefit from more overall efficiency through the use of Kubernetes, which enables users to gain more control over development and deployment on a larger scale. The process can be automated by grouping multiple containers together on the same application. Kubernetes then automatically allocates resources, manages service discovery, analyzes overall health of clusters and performs other necessary tasks to ensure painless deployment. 

As application architecture continues to evolve from unmanageable monolithic or three-tier patterns to interconnected microservices and Kubernetes, it’s important to consider the road ahead—and how a SaaS solution for configuration can make all the difference. Because Kubernetes is both complex and expensive if not properly managed, simplifying the processes through a robust operational model is nonnegotiable. Service ownership is what allows teams to continually overcome cultural and technical challenges while embracing a more collaborative and innovative approach. 

Not sure what service ownership means? Check out our white paper: A Complete Guide to Kubernetes Service Ownership

How can Fairwinds Insights Help With Scalability?

Our security and governance software solution, Fairwinds Insights unifies development, security and operations by simplifying complexity and enabling the Kubernetes service ownership model. It promotes continuous improvement by integrating service ownership from CI/CD through production. To help teams overcome cultural challenges and embrace service ownership, Insights allows users to:

  • Automate security by continuously monitoring all clusters against security misconfigurations and pinpoint risk from CI/CD through production.
  • Enforce guardrails by establishing policies and practices to help developers move faster while complying with SOC 2 requirements.
  • Optimize cost by better understanding your workloads and get recommendations to rightsize applications.
  • Find reliability through policies based on best practices to ensure fast, reliable applications—and the least amount of downtime.
  • Successfully scale by configuring consistently as Kubernetes is scaled to multiple teams.

Fairwinds Insights provides DevOps teams with visibility into Kubernetes environments by providing a dashboard view of all clusters and helping teams understand Kubernetes misconfigurations that are causing security and compliance risks. The software helps teams with some of the more challenging aspects of managing Kubernetes by assigning ownership to the person or team responsible for resolving those critical issues. Developers are empowered to own security and efficiency configurations in their applications, so it’s no longer just a problem for operations.

Fairwinds Insights is available to use for free. You can sign up here.