Cloud Computing in Focus: Serverless, Microservices, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, and More

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Cloud computing concepts can seem as nebulous as clouds themselves, but in April, we published several cloud-related articles to help clarify a few underlying ideas and look at some specific implementations.

This month, Swapnil Bhartiya tackled the subject of serverless computing with There’s a Server in Every Serverless Platform. According to a recent whitepaper from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Serverless Working Group, “serverless computing refers to the concept of building and running applications that do not require server management.” However, as Bhartiya explains, there are still servers involved.

Also, with the rise of containers, many companies have started to break monoliths into microservices. In Microservices Explained, Bhartiya described how this approach offers a way to break down complex applications and allow components to evolve independently. He talked with Docker’s Patrick Chanezon, who said, “The idea is that you are building your application as a set of loosely coupled services that can be updated and scaled separately under the container infrastructure.”

In other cloud news, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe is happening this week in Copenhagen, Denmark, and those in attendance can look forward to three days of talks, co-located events, and collaboration focused on cloud-native computing. Not everyone can be there in person, though, so Linux.com has been running a series of articles to preview a few of the featured conference talks.   

The following articles will give you a taste of the event and help you learn the latest about containers, cloud, Kubernetes, and more.

Put Wind into your Deployments with Kubernetes and Helm by Eldad Assis

Kubernetes is known for the ease with which you can spin up a cluster, deploy your applications to it, and scale it to your needs. This article shows how easy it can be to run and test your code in a production-like environment.

Extending the Kubernetes Cluster API by Henrik Schmidt

The Cluster API is a new working group under the umbrella of the sig-cluster-lifecycle that aims to enable you to create clusters and machines via a simple, declarative API. The working group is in the very early stages of defining all API types, but Henrik Schmidt has more details in this article.

CRI: The Second Boom of Container Runtimes by CNCF

Harry (Lei) Zhang and Xu Wang, will present “CRI: The Second Boom of Container Runtimes”  this week at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe. In this article, Zhang provides some background on CRI, container runtimes, KataContainers, and how they all fit together.

Extending Kubernetes API for Complex Stateful Applications using Operator by Anil Kumar

Kubernetes 1.5 includes the new StatefulSet API object, which gives you a set of resources to deal with stateful containers, such as volumes and stable network ids. Learn more from CouchBase’s Anil Kumar.

Fluent Bit: Flexible Logging in Kubernetes by Eduardo Silva

Logging in containerized environments involves new challenges that need to be addressed. In this article, Treasure Data’s Eduardo Silva describes the current status of the Fluentd ecosystem and looks at improvements in the new Fluent Bit v0.13 release that will be of interest to Kubernetes users.

For more information, read the CNCF Working Group’s serverless whitepaper. And, check out the whole schedule of events at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, happening May 2-4 in Copenhagen, Denmark.