Key Considerations When Choosing Infrastructure for Hosting Kubernetes Workloads

In this article

• Key Considerations To Consider When Choosing Infrastructure For Hosting Kubernetes Workloads
• How Do On-Demand OpenStack Clouds Meet The Infrastructure Needs Of Kubernetes Workloads?

Performance and Scalability

Performance and scalability are crucial factors to consider when selecting the infrastructure to host Kubernetes workloads. They directly influence the user experience and the overall success of applications.

Performance measures how swiftly and effectively applications respond to user interactions. If the infrastructure lacks the necessary power to accommodate the demands of Kubernetes workloads, applications will become sluggish and unresponsive.

Scalability refers to infrastructure’s ability to adapt and handle increasing workloads. Without adequate scalability, infrastructure might struggle to keep up with the needs of a growing business. This lack unfortunately may result in system outages, extended downtime, and a loss of customers who expect consistent and reliable service.

Private OpenStack clouds provide a compelling solution by offering a balance between virtualization and performance. OpenStack allows businesses to efficiently allocate resources to their Kubernetes clusters, ensuring their applications have the necessary compute, storage, and network resources to perform optimally. This scalability allows administrators to expand their infrastructure as their workloads grow, ensuring that their applications always have the resources they need. Please note that with Private OpenStack Clouds, scalability is limited by available hardware resources. This is why many businesses will prefer to have hosted OpenStack solutions versus on-prem.

Cost-Efficiency

Cost-efficiency can have a direct impact on the bottom line of a business. Kubernetes workloads can be resource-intensive, so it is important to choose infrastructure that is efficient and cost-effective.

Private OpenStack clouds provide a cost-effective solution by allowing businesses to customize their infrastructure precisely to their needs. OpenStack allows administrators to allocate resources as needed, avoiding over-provisioning and minimizing waste.

Control and Isolation

Control and isolation can have a direct impact on the security and reliability of a Kubernetes environment.

Control refers to the ability to manage and configure one’s infrastructure. Businesses should make sure that their infrastructure provides them with the ability to configure it to meet their needs. For example, businesses may need to be able to configure the network, storage, and security settings for their Kubernetes environment.

Isolation refers to the separation of Kubernetes workloads from each other and from other resources on the infrastructure. This can help to prevent security breaches and performance problems. When choosing infrastructure for Kubernetes, businesses should make sure that their Kubernetes workloads are properly isolated from each other and from other resources. This can be accomplished by running Kubernetes clusters in virtual machines.

Private OpenStack clouds give businesses complete control over their cloud infrastructure. Administrators can create isolated environments for different teams or projects. This level of control is indispensable for businesses with stringent compliance requirements or sensitive data to protect.

High Availability and Reliability

Businesses need their infrastructure to be reliable and available to avoid Kubernetes workloads failures. Businesses would want to avoid hardware failures, software failures, and network failures.

Private OpenStack clouds have built-in high availability features. These include redundancy, failover mechanisms, load balancing and automated recovery processes. These elements work together to make it easier to configure and manage failover strategies for your Kubernetes clusters, reducing down time. It ensures that your applications remain accessible and responsive, even in the face of hardware or network failures.

Integration and Ecosystem

Integration and ecosystem can have a direct impact on the ease of use, flexibility, and scalability of Kubernetes environment.

Integration refers to how well the chosen infrastructure integrates with other tools and technologies that are used. Businesses should choose infrastructure that integrates with their existing monitoring tools or CI/CD pipelines. This can make it easier to manage and operate their Kubernetes environment.

Ecosystem refers to the community of users and contributors that support the chosen infrastructure. The Open Source community is large and supportive, however, some projects have more active contributors than others.

Private OpenStack clouds seamlessly integrate with a wide range of tools and services, thanks to their open-source nature. You can easily connect your Kubernetes clusters with other cloud services, monitoring tools, and automation systems. This interoperability simplifies the management of your infrastructure and allows you to leverage the broader ecosystem of cloud-native technologies.

Security and Compliance

Kubernetes workloads often contain sensitive data and are critical to the operation of businesses. If a Kubernetes workload is compromised, it can lead to data breaches, financial losses, and regulatory penalties. This is especially important for businesses operating in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and banking. This is why security and compliance are important when choosing infrastructure to host Kubernetes workloads.

Private OpenStack clouds allow users to implement robust security features, including network segmentation, encryption, and identity management. You can tailor your security measures to meet your organization’s specific needs and compliance standards, ensuring that your workloads remain protected.

Customization and Resource Optimization

Customization and resource optimization determine if businesses are able to improve the performance, cost-effectiveness, and security of their Kubernetes environment.

Customization refers to the ability to configure the infrastructure to meet the specific needs of workloads. For example, businesses may want to customize the networking, storage, or security settings of their infrastructure.

Resource optimization refers to the ability to use resources efficiently. This means choosing infrastructure that meets the businesses’ needs while avoiding wasting resources. This helps businesses reduce costs and improve the performance of their Kubernetes environment.

Private OpenStack clouds provide the flexibility to customize infrastructure to meet the unique demands of your Kubernetes workloads. Businesses can fine-tune resource allocation, choose the hardware that suits their requirements, and optimize their infrastructure for specific applications, resulting in improved performance and cost-efficiency.

How Do On-Demand OpenStack Clouds Meet The Infrastructure Needs Of Kubernetes Workloads?

Choosing the right infrastructure for hosting your Kubernetes workloads is a pivotal decision that impacts your organization’s performance, cost-efficiency, and security. OpenMetal’s On-Demand OpenStack clouds are an excellent choice due to their ability to offer a balanced combination of performance, cost-effectiveness, control, and reliability.

OpenMetal’s customer PypeStream’s infrastructure solution includes OpenStack API Integrations and cloud capacity to run Kubernetes across 140 compute instances. You can learn more about their experience running Kubernetes on OpenMetal’s On-Demand OpenStack clouds by reading their customer story here.

By carefully considering these key factors and leveraging the capabilities of private OpenStack clouds, you can build a robust and efficient environment for your Kubernetes workloads, ensuring the success of your cloud-native initiatives.

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