As Kubernetes celebrates its ten-year anniversary, it’s astonishing to see how far it has come and how widely it is used by companies all over the world. However, despite its popularity, many large developer teams and companies are still in the process of migrating to Kubernetes or have yet to embark on the journey. For some developers who like to stay on the cutting edge, ten years of a technology can feel like an eternity, and they may view Kubernetes and the whole “cloud-native” ethos as outdated.
During KubeCon EU in Paris, I had the opportunity to speak with European cloud-native thought leaders about their thoughts on the future of cloud-native and what could potentially replace Kubernetes. One potential shift in the cloud-native landscape is the desire for more control of hosting. While the big three cloud hosts (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) were instrumental in driving cloud-native computing, some companies are starting to move back to more traditional hosts. This was evident at KubeCon, where smaller hosts like OVHcloud, Scaleway, and CIVO had a strong presence. Smaller hosts may offer more options and flexibility for data-sensitive enterprise customers, particularly in Europe. Additionally, Broadcom’s recent acquisition of VMWare could open up opportunities for smaller hosts and provide a managed enterprise-ready version of a public cloud deployed locally.
Another trend that could potentially impact the future of cloud-native is the emergence of WebAssembly (WASM). Originally created by Mozilla in 2017, WASM has quickly become a web standard and is supported by all major web browsers. It allows compiled languages like C++ and Rust to run applications in browsers, meaning applications can be written once and run on all operating systems and platforms. Recently, there have been developments to run WASM on the server-side, creating competition for containers on Kubernetes. WASM has advantages over containers in terms of security and efficiency, as it runs as a compiled binary including all dependencies. While WASM may not replace Kubernetes, it could potentially replace the containers that Kubernetes orchestrates.
CIVO, a cloud infrastructure provider, now offers options for hosting WASM payloads on their Kubernetes service. They aim to support new technologies and allow customers to deploy them. Many cloud-native experts believe that WASM is the next big thing and are optimistic about its potential.
Platforms are also becoming increasingly important in the cloud-native landscape. As Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies have grown more complex over the past decade, companies are finding it challenging to manage and maintain infrastructure and services. This has led to the emergence of platform teams within organizations that build internal self-serve tools for creating and deploying infrastructure and services. However, not all companies have the resources to create a functioning platform team, so SaaS companies have stepped in to fill that gap. Giant Swarm, for example, provides development teams with the tools they need to function and create their work, taking care of the infrastructure so teams can focus on their actual work.
Infrastructure as code tools like Terraform have also played a significant role in platform engineering. However, last year, Terraform caused controversy when it ceased open-source development and changed its license. This led to the creation of OpenTofu, an open-source fork of Terraform. Many companies have already created products on top of OpenTofu, and the project has gained significant traction.
Luca Galante, VP of Product and Growth at Humanitec, believes that the future of cloud-native could involve continued abstraction for infrastructure combined with AI. A model could learn from specific needs for developer platforms and create them based on simple prompts or requirements. This could potentially bring back the concept of “ChatOps” proposed by GitHub years ago, but this time with advanced generative AI capabilities.
In conclusion, as Kubernetes celebrates its tenth birthday, it’s clear that it has firmly established itself as a leading technology in the cloud-native landscape. While there may be new advancements and alternatives on the horizon, it will likely take another ten years before a significant portion of the user base moves on to the next hot trend. Kubernetes has become the backbone of many innovations across various industries, and its silent but impactful presence will continue to shape the future of cloud-native for years to come. Happy birthday, Kubernetes, and here’s to many more years of success!
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