Hello, Cloud Gurus. I'm Nigel. Poulton the author of The Kubernetes Book and Quick Start Kubernetes,
and welcome to Kubernetes This Month. The show that keeps you bang up to date
with all the important goings on in the Kubernetes world. Now, in this episode,
we're diving into exciting things happening with SUSE's ever growing range of Kubernetes products.
We're gonna talk a little bit more about the looming dockershim deprecation, and we'll look
into the potentially slowing use of serverless. Now, while you’re here, be sure to subscribe,
so you’re always up-to-date with everything going on in the world of containers and Kubernetes.
Right. So I'm expecting 2022 to be a big year for Kubernetes security, or
at least the big security shift left where we're not only talking security,
but we're integrating it from day one, and then every day after that.
Well, on that topic SUSE, the company who owned Rancher, have released their recently acquired
NeuVector security platform as the industry's open-source container-centric security platform.
Now that's magic. The community loves open-source and it opens the platform up to more developers
and it gets more people using and testing it. But as well as this, they're integrating it with their
own Rancher container management platform. So actually maybe we should define NeuVector first.
So it is a container-focused security platform that does things like continuous vulnerability
scanning throughout the entire life cycle of a container. It does end-to-end runtime security,
properly good network visibility, and it can even do container segmentation.
Anyway, that's all getting integrated with the Rancher platform. So, if you are a potentially
new user, you're getting something that is much more enterprise-y with a security-centered focus.
But if you are an existing user well, yeah you'll be getting all of that in a future release and it
just makes Rancher even stickier than before. And I think that's the aim here. So instead of
container management platforms like Rancher just offering up Kubernetes-native features,
but packaged better and with a support contract, we're seeing more and more that they're bringing
way more than that to the table. Now, for me, that can be good or bad. And I think you need to keep
an eye out for this as things move forward. But look, I have had more than my fair share
of big ugly enterprise apps that become honestly untameable beasts. So I really hope that Rancher
and all the other platforms out there don't make the mistake of trying to boil the ocean.
Now look in no way am I saying we're even close to that here. Right now I actually think there's
positives in integrations like this, but let's not forget the mistakes of the past.
Lest we repeat them again and again and again. Okay, switching gears, but sticking with SUSE and
Rancher. Last month saw the Rancher Desktop project hit the coveted 1.0 milestone. So
massive congratulations to the community and the team involved in that. And I know historically
Rancher have contributed an absolute ton to the community and it seems, at least from the outside,
that it's more of the same since the acquisition of SUSE. Brilliant. Anyway, look, Rancher Desktop
is Kubernetes for well, your laptop and your desktop. And actually I'm using 1.0 on my own
laptop. And I've gotta say I'm loving how it works, especially with the latest versions
of Kubernetes, but it also works with the older stable ones. As well, it lets me choose between
containerd and Docker as a runtime. And I get to choose the Docker command line if I want that
or nerdctl. So if you are a developer needing a pretty configurable Kubernetes experience on your
laptop, or I don't know if you're just looking for a quick and easy way to play around with and learn
Kubernetes, then honestly, Rancher Desktop is deffo worth a look. And, in line with what we've
just said about integrating NeuVector security with the main Rancher platform for stickiness,
I don't know, I think having a slick, local desktop experience that will also potentially
integrate seamlessly...well look, it just adds gravity to the whole of the Rancher portfolio.
I mean, they are properly out there leading the way as a go-to Kubernetes company for on-prem,
in the cloud, on the edge, on your desktop, and even more. They're definitely worth a look.
Okay. So time for my top picks from January. Talk around the dockershim deprecation just
refuses to go away. I mean, it was announced way back in December 2020 with Kubernetes 1.20.
I think it was originally gonna be pulled out in 1.23, but then it wasn't, I don't think people
were ready at that point. But as things stand it slated for removal in Kubernetes 1.24, which is
due in about April, but I'm still not convinced. I mean, don't get me wrong. The community is working
hard putting resources together, but I don't know. Just still seems a bit scary for me. And look,
I know we said it last month, but get testing now and get things switched over nice and early before
you even think about Kubernetes 1.24. Cause if you don't, well, we don't even want to go there.
Well, last but not least for this month, is serverless in decline? I've seen chatter
around the 2021 State of Cloud Native Deployment report talking about serverless apparently losing
popularity among developers. And I think that is in part due to the lack of standards and potential
lock-in. Now I'm personally a fan of severless, or function-as-a-service, depending on how you
like to call it. I would just say buyer beware. I mean, it is still a highly fractured area,
in my opinion, with too many people getting locked into proprietary vendor offerings. So yes,
serverless is great and it brings a lot to the table. Just don't get carried away in the hype,
and do your best to choose a platform that doesn't lock you in. Brilliant. And that wraps things for
this month. If you liked this episode, you can check out more of our original series with an
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And on that note, stay safe. I'll see you all again next month. Same kube time, same kube place.