Innovations in Kubernetes package management and deployment

Bart: Who are you? What's your role? Who do you work for?

Philip: Hi, I'm Philip, co-founder of Glasskube. We are an open-source DevTools startup building the next generation of package managers for Kubernetes.

Bart: What are three emerging Kubernetes tools that you are keeping an eye on?

Philip: Definitely follow the database operators like Cloud Native Pg and MariaDB operator, because I think they're getting more popular and stable nowadays. The classic Kubernetes dashboard actually got a major revamp with new technology, which I'm also... very closely following, and obviously Glasskube. I need to just plug it here.

Bart: One of our guests, Steven, shared some simple but effective advice on building Kubernetes operators. Keep it simple and use multiple CRDs. Do you have any advice on operators?

Philip: Just getting started. You can build your first controller super easily. Kubebuilder is a great way to get started. There's also the Java operator SDK. If you have a Java or Kotlin background, it's a fantastic way to write your first operator, get to know all the reconcilers, and you can eventually move to Go. Forward eventually.

Bart: Another guest, Alex, compared Argo CD and Flux CD and showed that one focuses more on application deployment while the other is best suited for provisioning infrastructure. What's your view on this? Is there a better GitOps tool?

Philip: Sure, I think both have their pros and cons, but Flux really stands out for me for its simplicity and focus on a task, which it does very well. Also, the Helm Controller is really nice to have real Helm releases in your cluster, which is a major plus point. Spuds? Argo CD with its GUI obviously has some use cases, especially for folks who just want to have the shiny tool. I'm super happy that Flux is a graduated CNCF project. So it won't go away.

Bart: A guest of ours, Jacco, disliked Helm's approach to templating, mentioning difficulties with multi-line strings and loss of strict schema enforcement, but acknowledged the usefulness of Helm packages. Do you see more tools in companies tackling the Helm package manager with new and innovative solutions? Are you happy with the status quo? How should we install third-party packages into Kubernetes?

Philip: Helm has built up an awesome ecosystem, and Helm charts are so popular that it's super easy to get them installed. However, the templating languages and drawbacks like missing dependencies and no multi-namespace deployments in umbrella charts are issues that need to be addressed for the Kubernetes ecosystem because it's still missing a real package manager. We at Glasskube are on a mission to build the next generation of package manager for Kubernetes.

Bart: Kubernetes is turning 10 years old this year. What should we expect in the next 10 years to come?

Philip: Sure, I think Kubernetes does an awesome job in getting all my applications ready for availability zones. It has a lot of potential if you look at your company deployment at a global scale. Something like Metakube or anything else related to orchestrating applications across multiple clusters in multiple countries. Availability zones would be super nice and would solve the next big problem.

Bart: What's next for you?

Philip: We just started with Glasskube, so multiple years are ahead of our journey. We have some really exciting news to share, but I can't share it right now. Make sure to follow our journey to stay updated on what's going to happen with Glasskube in the near future.

Bart: How can people get in touch with you?

Philip: I'm Philip Miglinci on LinkedIn. I'm just PMIG80 on X or Twitter. Or just join the Glasskube Discord and write to me.