What is Kubernetes and why is the new Armour Core server-side platform based on it.
Initially released in 2015, amid the usual hype and hoopla of an exciting new technology, Kubernetes has now completed the ‘hype cycle’ and is firmly in its maturity phase. And after a lot of work to master this powerful concept to bring the very best benefits to our customers, we are now ready to announce the availability of Armour Mobile Kubernetes edition.
Armour Mobile Kubernetes is an enhanced version of the Armour Mobile infrastructure that delivers robust secure scalability to support the fast deployment to, potentially, thousands of users at a time. This can be achieved on premises, cloud or hybrid cloud. As requirements change, deployments can be scaled back equally as fast to save resources and costs.
Kubernetes was first developed by a team at Google and later donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF ). It is an open-source platform to manage containerised workloads and services.
But what is Kubernetes? Why does it matter and more importantly what benefits can it deliver to your business? Here we explain why the Kubernetes container orchestration platform is one of the fastest moving projects in the history of open-source software.
1.Building blocks – reusing resources
To understand why we need Kubernetes, we must first understand containers. A container is a unit of software that can be isolated for security or scalability, usually performing a specific task, with control over its access to the underlying operating system (OS) and hardware resources. Multiple containers can be combined to build an application and because containers can be reused across different applications, new functionality can be developed more quickly. As well as faster time to value for new features and functions, reusing resources also saves time and costs.
Containers are lightweight and virtualise processing, memory, storage and network resources at the OS level, rather than hardware level. As containers are virtual environments that share the kernel of the host operating system, they can more easily be ported to run on a range of hardware platforms that support containerisation (compared to more traditional virtualisation technologies such as virtual machines, i.e. VMS).
2.Scale and management – supporting super-fast deployment
Kubernetes delivers a framework to run distributed systems by automating the deployment, scaling and management of containers. In the case of Armour Mobile, we can define how we need the platform to operate; for example if hardware fails, or if traffic load is high, Kubernetes is configured to ensure resilience without the need for manual intervention. Additionally, Kubernetes is self-healing, restarting containers that fail and killing and replacing containers that fail to respond to defined health checks.
All of this provides the ability to scale up rapidly, which supports fast mass deployments, which may be required, for example, during emergency situations, troop manoeuvres, launching a new business division, or project, or coordinating a government enquiry, as well as many other business cases.
Security by Design is the ethos by which we develop all Armour solutions. Security is achieved by the way in which we use Kubernetes and processes incorporated within Armour solutions. Kubernetes allows us to set policies at a cluster-level to prevent or restrict processes or data access which we might consider a security risk.
3.Resilience and reliability
Kubernetes is a proven technology that allows Armour to deliver a platform that is more powerful, robust, and extensible. We can deliver features such as monitoring, load balancing, and failover, high availability and much more. This makes the provision of Armour Mobile more flexible, more resilient and more reliable for our customers. Even when under load from a high volume of concurrent users or high network traffic, Kubernetes can load balance and distribute the network traffic so that the deployment is stable.
4.Delivered to suit your needs
Armour customers will benefit from our use of Kubernetes, whatever their current choice of deployment, be it on premises, cloud, or hybrid. Using Kubernetes has delivered an array of improvements to our existing development cycle which will benefit our customers.
Kubernetes also allows for a hybrid cloud approach for customers who require it. The Armour Mobile solution can be managed using Kubernetes tools, both in-house on bare metal and in the cloud.
For more information about how Armour Comms can help your organisation to adopt a more secure approach to communications and collaborative working, contact us today.
