Kubernetes Production Environment

Kubernetes in production systems requrie different setup than testing or learning environment. Several things needed to be accounting while setting up k8s cluster in production such as availability, scalability, security, etc. With every added feature there comes additional complexity but every complexity is worth it in the long run.

How Learning/Testing Enviornment Differs From Production?

While it may seem tempting at first to start learning or testing k8s cluster directly on production style setup, it is practically not worth the complexity as the name applies testing environment is for testing and learning environment is for learning.

It is obvious to think that “if we have to finally move on production enviornment why not learn/test directly on production-like enviornment?” Here are some few highlighted points why the complexity is not worth for dev/test/learning environment:

• Production systems run multiple kubernetes cluster to be highly available and to avoid single point of failure — Can you spend on multi infrastructure while testing or learning?
• Production systems need to scale up or down depending on load which may even vary drastically — Do you even need to scale while learning or testing?
• You need to deligate access of different components of k8s according to role in production as part of security and compliance — Who are you going to deligate access control, yourself? and for what cost/benefit?

If you are ready to bear these all complexity for very less benefit then you are very much welcome as no one is stopping you to do things of your choice.

What Entreprises Actually Use?

Tools like Minikube, Kind, and VIND are mainly designed for learning, testing, and development environments. They are not production-level Kubernetes solutions because they provide limited features and do not offer enterprise-level support.

Enterprises usually use managed Kubernetes services like EKS, Red Hat OpenShift, etc. These platforms are essentially Kubernetes with additional features, management, and enterprise-level support. In most cases, you pay for the service, so you can get support when you face issues.

Open-source platforms are useful, but they have their own development and support timelines. If something goes wrong in a production environment, you may need a quick solution. With managed Kubernetes services, you can open a support ticket and get help resolving the issue as quickly as possible.