In the competitive market of modern applications and infrastructure, Kubernetes is emerging to be one of the best cloud control planes. Kubernetes allows to manage, scale, and automate containerized application workloads. As new updates are emerging in Kubernetes ecosystems, the number of use cases is also becoming available. Kubernetes’ Architecture enables developers to extend its functionalities by letting them perform limitless customizations. The extensible policy makes it a problem solver to traditional distributed system problems.

Kubernetes is a cloud control plane where it can operate the entire cloud infrastructure by endeavoring IaaC (Infrastructure as a Code). Kubernetes as a control plane becomes more useful when multi-cloud deployments come into the picture. Throughout this blog, we are going to discuss the functionalities and objects of the Kubernetes APIs, that make it an emerging cloud control plane.

Managing Modern Cloud-Native Applications:

Modern Cloud-Native Applications contain separate resources to function in different processes like datastore management, message queue management, data configuration, metric storage, log storage, and resource connection credentials. Those resources require proper management and must be inter-connected and accomplished which is a very error-prone and tedious process. Well, such tasks can be automated with the help of some APIs but managing the lifecycle of all these resources is a problematic task.

Manage Modern Cloud-Native Application Tasks Using Kubernetes Extensions:

Kubernetes allows incorporating some stack of extensions in one API through which users can manage various tasks seamlessly. Firstly, it permits to perform cloud events like creating new objects, making updates in the state, etc. Secondly, Kubernetes extensions allow users to enhance the existing building blocks by using new fields so that they can add more data and behavior to such resources. At last, users can create completely new resource types with the help of Custom Resource Definitions. Also, provide a cloud-native and virtualized environment to the users.

The Kubernetes extensions offer an open-source and standard-based alternative in the world of license versions. KubeVirt is just like the other Kubernetes extensions which provide cloud-native virtualization by running Virtual Machines in a Kubernetes Managed Environment. To do that it combines the agile application orchestration and mature virtualization management in Kubernetes. With all these offerings Kubernetes can manage infrastructure across any public or private cloud with any compute and storage equipment.

Custom Resources:

Custom Resources are the extension of Kubernetes that stores API object collection. These resources will not be available at the installation time of Kubernetes but can be added as per requirement. Furthermore, the modulization of Kubernetes can be done because many of its functions are built upon custom resources. The appearance of custom resources can be decided through dynamic registration in a running cluster and the cluster admin is responsible for setting up the independent custom resources. After the custom resource is installed, users are authorized for object creation and accession through the Kubectl command-line tool. Furthermore, the custom resources can be added to the Kubernetes cluster in two ways:

Custom Resource Definition:

It is an API resource through which custom resources are defined. Creating new custom resources becomes easier for users using CRD because they just need to specify the name and schema at the time of defining a CRD. Then the resources are served and handled by the Kubernetes API. Custom Resources does not provide flexibility as compared to API server aggregation but it frees developers from writing API servers to handle custom resources.

API Server Aggregation:

Kubernetes API server provides a domain where all resources and REST requests are managed. The leading Kubernetes API server manages default resources and custom resources using CRDs.  The aggregation layer enables developers to build their own standalone API server for custom resources. After that, the main API collects the user's custom resources and makes them available to their clients.

Custom Controllers:

Custom Resources only allow to storage and retrieval of structured API data, but by combining them with a Kubernetes custom controller, it can provide a true declarative API. You must be thinking about what exactly this declarative API is. Well, A declarative API not just allows users to identify the aspired state of a particular resource but also synchronizes it with the Kubernetes objects’ current state. A controller takes the structured data as a user’s desired state of the record and aims to maintain that state. In the running cluster, the custom controller's deploying and updating processes are independent of the cluster's lifecycle. Basically, a custom controller can work with any resources, but it can perform more effectively if combined with custom resources.

Support from A Cloud Provider:

The extension of Kubernetes provides flexibility to developers by enabling them the easy implementation of CRDs and Controllers to manage cloud resources. However, all cloud providers like Azure, AWS, and GKE have recognized this API-driven shift of Kubernetes and collaborated with Kubernetes to manage their cloud resources. The Kubernetes ecosystem will grow and become the central part of cloud infrastructure. Well, it is all in the future, but if you want your organization to be future-ready then leverage CloudStakes Technology the leading Managed IT Service Provider in India to offer you cutting-edge cloud solutions and scale your organizations with the power of the cloud.