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Challenges of Enterprise Kubernetes

Nov. 16, 2020, 8:48 p.m.

TL;DR

Kubernetes has taken the digital world by storm and comes with unmatched benefits. However, the path to its adoption and usage isn’t always clear. In an effort to understand the challenges posed by Enterprise Kubernetes, D2iQ conducted a survey of developers and IT decision-makers and recently shared its surprising findings. The report, ‘Kubernetes in the Enterprise: Uncovering Challenges & Opportunities’, focuses on Kubernetes’ current prevalence and future impact in enterprises. Here is a summary:

51% of developers and architects say building cloud native applications makes them want to find a new job

Key Facts

1
89% of organizations are currently running Kubernetes.
2
The most popular workloads for organizations are Build structures (64%), Distributed (nosql) data servers (61%), Windows containers (59%), Data analytics or machine learning workloads (58%) and Traditional data services (sql) (57%).
3
95% organizations that use cloud native technology have run into challenges.
4
38% of developers and architects claim their work makes them feel extremely burnt out.
5
51% of developers and architects say building cloud native applications makes them want to find a new job.
6
98% of organizations are currently investing or planning to invest in Kubernetes training to fill that gap.

Details

Kubernetes projects in production and enterprise digital transformations

In an effort to spearhead advanced digital transformations, enterprises are rapidly shifting to cloud native and open source technologies. These are allowing enterprises to boost their time-to-value and enable agility like never before. When we look at Kubernetes projects put in production, the goal of most companies is largely focused on three domains.

Operations
Customer service
Future of the business

However, the successful adoption and implementation of Kubernetes isn’t straightforward and poses several challenges - from the perspective of developers as well as IT management.

Key obstacles to Kubernetes adoption

The IT department in any enterprise is almost always the most taxed and burnt out. Kubernetes has been found to be adding to this taxation. For most IT developers, the security concerns posed by Kubernetes is the biggest challenge so far. It has also been found that in the event of limited knowledge about the architecture, it also makes it difficult for developers to effectively scale up the applications. The organizations are thus strapped for talent and must provide their employees with training to bridge the gap.

Another key obstacle to Kubernetes’ adoption is a lack of resources. This lack of resources doesn’t just make the implementation complex but also causes additional stress to the developers. Building cloud-native applications become a stressful job and result in immense project delays. The burnout associated with Kubernetes adoption is so high that it drives developers to look for a new job.

Disruption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

In the face of a global pandemic as dangerous as COVID-19, the disruptions have also been felt by developers and IT managers working with Kubernetes. In the last five to six months since the pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world, enterprises have felt a disruptive effect on their operations. The most critical disruptions, in this case, have been project delays, frozen or slowed down hiring, development budgetary cuts, and technology acquisition budgetary cuts.