Maybe You Don't Need Kubernetes (2019)
All these "maybe you don't need this or that X" posts die in an instant when the user already knows how to do X (when the learning curve argument is gone).<p>Let's get it right:<p>Kubernetes is really really cheap. I can run 20 low volume apps in a kubes cluster with a single VM. This is cheaper than any other hosting solution in the cloud if you want the same level of stability and isolation. It's even cheaper when you need something like a Redis cache. If my cache goes down and the container needs to be spun up again then it's not a big issue, so for cheap projects I can even save more cost by running some infra like a Redis instance as a container too. Nothing beats that. It gets even better, I can run my services in different namespaces, and have different environments (dev/staging/etc.) isolated from each other and still running on the same amount of VMs. When you caculate the total cost saving here to traditional deployments it's just ridiculously cheap.<p>Kubernetes makes deployments really easy. docker build + kubectl apply. That's literally it. Deployments are two commands and it's live, running in the cloud. It's elastic, it can scale, etc.<p>Kubernetes requires very little maintenance. Kubernetes takes care of itself. A container crashes? Kubes will bring it up. Do I want to roll out a new version? Kubes will do a rolling update on its own. I am running apps in kubes and for almost 2 years I haven't looked at my cluster or vms. They just run. Once every 6 months I log into my console and see that I can upgrade a few nodes. I just click ok and everything happens automatically with zero downtime.<p>I mean yes, theoretically nothing needs Kubernetes, because the internet was the same before we had Kubernetes, so it's certainly not needed, but it makes life a lot easier. Especially as a cheap lazy developer who doesn't want to spend time on any ops Kubernetes is really the best option out there next to serverless.<p>If learning Kubernetes is the reason why it's "not needed" then nothing is needed. Why use a new programming language? Why use a new db technology? Why use anything except HTML 4 + PHP, right?<p>BTW, learning Kubernetes can be done in a few days.