Guest: Justin Mitchel (LinkedIn)
Company: Akamai (Twitter)
Show: Let’s Talk

Justin Mitchel, Founder of Coding for Entrepreneurs, believes that Kubernetes does not have to be too complex and that there are steps you can take to reduce that complexity. His new book, Road to Kubernetes, aims to help developers understand what Kubernetes has to offer and the benefits of this approach, taking readers through the stages so that developers can bring their applications from application code to containerization into Kubernetes.

In this episode of TFiR: Let’s Talk recorded at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in Chicago, Mitchel talks about his new book and how it is helping developers understand containerization better. He goes on to explain some of the benefits of containers and some of the challenges. He also gives us some insight into his roadmap.

Key highlights from this video interview:

• Mitchel talks about the premise of his new book, Road to Kubernetes, and what questions his book aims to answer to help developers better understand why they should use Kubernetes and where it makes sense for the team and projects.
• While Mitchel does not believe every developer should get involved with Kubernetes, he does think they should know containerization. He talks about how understanding the complexity of Kubernetes is worth developers learning and how Kubernetes does not have to be too complex.
• Mitchel talks us through how companies are helping reduce the complexity for developers saying to carefully consider what the container’s purpose is because the abstractions built off that container will help to lower the complexity.
• Containers make applications far more portable and Mitchel explains that portability and containerization are key themes in the book. He discusses how once you have portability you have options for where to deploy the applications.
• Mitchel talks about some of the limitations of containers saying that a large part of the scaling problem with containers is how to roll out new versions of them, to roll back those versions, and to have enough resources running at any given time. He explains how Kubernetes makes that downtime minimal and reduces the complexity.
• Mitchel goes into depth about some of the challenges companies are facing saying that many who get started with Docker will use managed services to run their containers: however, they may get locked into high bills and run into problems when they want to move up the scale. He discusses why Kubernetes is preferable.
• Mitchel discusses the target audience for Road to Kubernetes, explaining that the book helps people understand where containers fit and look at Kubernetes, Nomad, and Docker Swarm container orchestration. Readers should have a clear understanding of how to bring their application from application code to containerization into Kubernetes.
• Mitchel talks us through what is on his roadmap, working on a new series that covers Infrastructure as Code (IaC). He explains this is the second volume in the series and will help prepare those who are not ready for containers or Kubernetes just yet.
• There are several different ways to think about Infrastructure as Code (IaC) including turning things on with a document, which TerraForm and Pulumi do particularly well, and making sure the applications run correctly. Mitchel discusses how Kubernetes differs from Infrastructure as Code.
• Generative AI is a hot topic right now and Mitchel takes us through what it means from the perspective of the Kubernetes ecosystem. He explains that part of the reason he is at KubeCon is to learn more from companies who are utilizing generative AI and doing it well, and he tells us it is something he will explore further in 2024.

This summary was written by Emily Nicholls.