Why are Enterprises Shifting to Containers with Kubernetes in 2022?

Vendor agnostic. Better resource utilization. Enhanced portability. Sounds like the making of one incredible data mobility cocktail! The key ingredient here is leveraging containers with Kubernetes (K8s). And we’re not the only ones advocating to adopt containers for amplified data mobility. Enterprises across the globe are shifting to containers with K8s with the IDC reporting that 80% of workloads are currently in the process of moving to containers.

According to our recent research, 63% of respondents reported that upon adopting Kubernetes, they also moved to container native databases. Container native storage (CNS) is a Kubernetes-native, software-defined, storage solution that itself runs in a container on each node of a Kubernetes cluster. By providing persistent volumes, CNS enables even stateful workloads to run in containers. In this article, we’re diving deep into the multitude of reasons enterprises are currently shifting to containers with Kubernetes. Let’s jump in.

Containers with Kubernetes Increase Application Performance and Stability

According to a Pepperdata survey, over 77% of respondents expect to migrate 50% or more of their workloads to containers with Kubernetes. Plus, the respondents’ number one reason for moving their workloads to K8s is to increase application performance and stability (45.3%). 

Containers with Kubernetes help to improve app performance and stability with the ability to isolate containers. By providing standalone and lightweight environments for running applications and their associated services, containers:

• Improve data mobility
• Optimize application performance and utilization
• Manage large amounts of application traffic in dynamic environments

When it comes to ensuring stability, individual containers can be altered and updated without impacting others. This means that apps can be tested in isolated environments, protecting the production system from corruption should the app crash during testing.

Portability is a Huge Advantage of Containers with K8s

27% of Pepperdata survey respondents also cited portability as being a major benefit of migrating to containers with Kubernetes. Enhanced portability gives enterprises a competitive advantage as it enables them to move and access data at any point in time and through space. Since containers isolate the application from the IT environment it’s stored in, IT teams are able to relocate the container to other locations without fear of failure or the need to update the app. The application will continue to work in the same way without any modifications.

When it comes to deploying applications to different environments like testing and production, developers are often faced with long wait times. Thus, the time to market is heavily lagged, allowing competitors to reach consumers first. Running applications in containers enables developers to rapidly deploy these applications on multiple and disparate operating systems and hardware platforms. Now, data is able to be transported when and where it’s needed in mere seconds.

Enterprises Can Avoid Vendor-Lock In

According to The Future of Stateful Applications on Kubernetes: Industry Report, 56.6% of the DevOps engineers, platform engineers, and cloud engineers surveyed report eliminating vendor lock-in as the second top value they expect to gain from multi-cloud — the first being increased availability (64%). 

Vendor lock-in is typically due to cloud providers offering complicated tiering and pricing for managing persistent data. Containers with Kubernetes empower IT teams to avoid vendor lock-in and gain the ability to move data across multiple clouds and infrastructure. If an organization ever decides to move the container(s) to a new cloud provider, there is no need to modify the current application container to work with a different cloud vendor. The container will work just as it did prior to the migration. Plus, if an organization wants to move out of the cloud completely and keep the workload on-prem, the containers with Kubernetes are able to easily move to an on-prem server.

With the right technology to support containers with K8s, IT teams can be free from vendor lock-in and:

• Automate scaling to ensure reliable performance 
• Automate tiering to meet space, performance, and cost requirements
• Deliver data rapidly while eliminating 99% of data wait time
  

Final Thoughts

Have you and your organization already shifted to containers with Kubernetes? If not, the longer you wait, the easier it is for your competitors to get ahead. ionir can help keep your organization in first place by:

• Running alongside application containers, orchestrated by Kubernetes
• Enabling you to move your data around multiple clouds whether private, public, or hybrid
• Improving operational cost, utilization, and portability

It’s time to take action. Start your free trial today.