LifeinTECH

Earlier today, Honeypot released an excellent two-part documentary on their YouTube channel, sharing the history of Kubernetes.

Kubernetes (AKA K8s), is an open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerised workloads. Kubernetes works with Docker, Containerd, and CRI-O and has become the “de facto standard” for cloud-native applications.

I highly recommend watching the documentary, which includes incredible access to Google, Red Hat, and Docker employees, as well as many other influential members of the open source community.

Part one of the documentary focuses on the history of Kubernetes, including the emergence of Docker, Google Borg (Cluster Management) and the infamous “container wars”.

Part two of the documentary describes the growth of Kubernetes, including key adoption milestones and the inevitable market consolidation.

I started my journey with Docker in 2014 and was a big advocate of Heroku following their acquisition by Salesforce.com in 2010, where I worked closely with their team promoting the Twelve-Factor App methodology and refining the developer experience.

I have also spent many years advocating the value of software engineering and open source within traditional businesses, looking to unlock new value through digital business models.

Therefore, it was fascinating to see the team at Google face relatable challenges convincing senior business leaders to sponsor an open source initiative. It highlights that even “cloud native businesses” suffer from bureaucratic inertia, looking to protect legacy/obsolete forms of monetisation.

I commend Honeypot for investing the time to create well researched, high-quality documentaries providing insight into key technologies and the communities that fuel them.

I respect these are niche topics, with a specialist audience, but the impact of technologies such as Kubernetes should not be underestimated, therefore we must document and celebrate these stories.