Keep On Running With Kubernetes

When Jackie Edwards wrote "Keep On Running" back in 1965, he certainly wasn't thinking about the future of computing. But, it's the Spencer Davis Group grooves that is the soundtrack playing in my head when I think about Kubernetes and the business value it brings. Enabling your environment to "Keep On Running" is just one of many of Kubernetes’ value adds. In my previous blog posts on Kubernetes, I explore why Kubernetes is becoming so popular and if it's a good fit for you. In this post, I want to talk about the business value of Kubernetes in your analytics environment.

Qlik’s multi-cloud strategy is to support any use case regardless of where your data is stored or how you need your data analytics platform deployed. We want to enable your cloud strategies by supplying ongoing choice in deployment of your analytics solution and evolve it to include more cloud services at your own pace. This is where Containers and Kubernetes come into play and can make a ‘DevOps’ world of difference.

Why Use Kubernetes in an Analytics Environment?
Kubernetes is a cross-platform, cloud-scalable orchestration architecture, which is becoming increasingly popular in the DevOps world. (For additional details, check out kubernetes.io) In short, utilizing containerized microservices on Kubernetes allows for larger, more robust deployments that “Keep On Running,” are easier to manage and can automatically scale elastically to infinity and beyond — perfect for those unpredictable times of peak demand.

What can Kubernetes do for you? I’ve listed some of Kubernetes’ additional advantages below.
• Reduce Costs
Running containerised software on the cloud reduces costs and makes better utilisation of resources.
• Increase Flexibility
Different functional components of a microservices-based, BI platform can run in different containers.
• Automate Deployment
Kubernetes enables your BI platform to be deployed on-premises, in any cloud and be dynamically scaled in all environments — development, test and production. You can also use Kubernetes to automatically roll out updates to your BI platform while keeping it available.
• Quickly Adjust to Demand
Automatically scale your BI platform using Kubernetes to handle more users, more data and enable high availability for use by applications.
• Lower Operational Costs
Kubernetes allows users to manage the movement of queries, reports and dashboards between environments; integrate additional services; and separate management of analytics workloads.
• Increase BI Adoption
With Kubernetes, you can also develop queries, reports, dashboards and models on-premises and publish to the cloud for mass consumption; centrally administer users and security entitlements; and push to the cloud.

What is the Value of Qlik Sense Deployed on Kubernetes?
We have made Qlik Sense Enterprise also available on Kubernetes, so it can be deployed in your own cloud of choice. This includes your own private cloud infrastructure or on a major public cloud vendor, such as AWS or redshift. (Learn more by heading over to our technology page.)
Taking advantage of this cloud-native edition of Qlik Sense enables users to work and collaborate in new ways and provides many benefits.

Deploying Qlik Sense on Kubernetes can:
• Enable Increased Usage
This means handling more users and more applications that request insights on-demand.
• Optimize Cost & Consumption
Qlik Sense Enterprise is platform agnostic so you can deploy it on-premises, in a single cloud or across multiple clouds giving you flexibility with your deployment costs. You can optimise the cost of consumption by developing on-premises and publishing to the cloud for mass consumption.
• Meet Demand for More Data
Automatically scale Qlik Sense Enterprise to handle more data sources both on-premises and on multiple clouds.
• Support Both On-Premises and Cloud Environments
Easily move your Qlik Sense Enterprise environment to a different cloud with no rework.
• Multi-Level Security
Keep single-user/user-group developed content separate, using spaces to maintain privacy before publishing to production environments for easy consumption.

As I hope you can probably tell by now, Kubernetes — via automated application deployment, scaling and management — can bring tremendous business value to your analytics environment.

Adam Mayer is working as Technical Product Marketeer at Qlik.