Kubernetes as Infrastructure Abstraction

While developers see and realize the benefits of Kubernetes, how it improves efficiencies, saves time, and enables focus on the unique business requirements of each project; InfoSec, infrastructure, and software operations teams still face challenges when managing a new set of tools and technologies, and integrating them into existing enterprise infrastructure. This is especially true for environments where security and governance requirements are so strict as to come into conflict with the cloud-native reference architectures. This deck will outline a plan that leverages Kubernetes as an infrastructure abstraction (hint: there is a lot more to it than just container orchestration!). Such an approach allows enterprises to untie themselves from infrastructure provider-specific technology stack and free development to use whichever tool fits their use case best. But how do you implement open source cloud-native technologies while meeting enterprise security and governance requirements? We’ll summarize common prerequisites for running Kubernetes in production, and how to leverage fine-grained controls and separation of responsibilities to meet enterprise governance and security needs; what’s needed for a general architecture of a centralized Kubernetes operations layer based on open source components such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Keycloak, etc.