Kubernetes in the Enterprise

Chapter 7. Cluster Operations and Hybrid Cloud

There are several key considerations that cloud operators must examine when administering Kubernetes clusters. In addition, cloud operators encounter even more complexity when they begin to support hybrid cloud environments. In this chapter, we begin with a brief description of hybrid cloud and the common motivations for adopting a Kubernetes-based hybrid cloud environment. We then take a more in-depth look at several key operational aspects of Kubernetes clusters, including access control, performance considerations, networking, storage, logging, and metrics integration. For each of these operational topics, we include a discussion of the issues that you must address when moving to hybrid cloud environments.

Hybrid Cloud Overview

What is hybrid cloud? Typically, hybrid cloud refers to any organization that is using a combined cloud platform that spans on-premises datacenters as well as a public cloud. In this book, we have been looking at a combination of IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (a public cloud Kubernetes as a Service offering) and IBM Cloud Private (a software solution that can be deployed into on-premises datacenters).

As enterprises make the transition from on-premises datacenters to public cloud, there are many challenges that development and operations teams will encounter. Although Kubernetes on its own is capable of helping to simplify many of the concerns these teams might have, there are still some significant complexities ...