
Ask HN: Is Kubernetes a New Cloud? - jinqueeny
It seems K8S is gaining real traction and every system is integrating with it or on its way. It’s also a good way to avoid cloud vendor lock-in. Is it safe to say that it&#x27;s another Cloud?
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oedmarap
It's an orchestrator for containers, and you can get by with scripting
declarative stuff here and there for smaller to mid-size Docker deployments.

If you're using containers and scaling becomes a consideration however,
Kubernetes is a natural choice because of its granularity and ubiquity as you
rightly mentioned.

Following this logic, I think investing in the inherent complexity of k8s pays
wonderful dividends when you begin to use it in a multi-cloud scenario.
Scaling and healing workloads across different providers/regions is a game
changer and that's where the abstraction makes the most sense (and bangs the
most buck).

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quickthrower2
I’m not sure it helps or hinders lock in, compared to the alternative of
managing some Linux VMs. If you have a bunch of Linux VMs and run free
software you aren’t locked in. Kubernetes might make it easier to manage and
administer things but that is a controversial topic, with some people saying
it adds complexity and requires even more refined sysadmin skills than running
stuff straight on the machines.

For a personal project I’m using a cheap VMs and just the Debian package
manager to install what I need, plus a list of steps I could turn into a shell
script if required. I’m not worried about being locked in.

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streetcat1
No. It is safe to say that it is another OS. If kubernetes manage processes
(aka containers) (including placement, resource management,etc) across
machines, it can be treated as a distrubuted os. It can run on a cloud (on
prem or public cloud).

