When, Why, and How to Run Databases in Kubernetes

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"Should I run my database in Kubernetes?" It's a simple question with no simple answer because the honest answer is: "it depends". And while there can be considerable benefits, there are also trade-offs. But any decision depends on what suits your use case.

Kubernetes is the platform of choice for managing containerized workloads and services. Most leaders and developers now agree that the benefits far outweigh the challenges. And even the largest enterprises use the platform to run stateless and stateful applications on-premises or as hybrid cloud deployments in production.

But things get complicated when you think about data and the Kubernetes ecosystem. Stateful applications require a new database architecture that takes into account scale, latency, availability, and application security needs. How do you know which database architecture is best equipped to meet these challenges?

In this article, we'll discuss the potential benefits and tradeoffs of running a database in Kubernetes and explore how many of those tradeoffs can be mitigated. Let's start with the benefits:

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The mass adoption of microservices architecture leads to a large number of relatively small databases with a finite number of nodes. This creates significant management challenges and companies often struggle to allocate their databases optimally. But running Kubernetes provides an infrastructure-as-code approach to addressing these challenges. This makes it easier to manage multiple large-scale microservices deployments, while optimizing resource usage on available nodes.

This really is one of the best arguments for Kubernetes. It can be used when running multiple databases in a multi-tenant environment. It allows companies to not only save costs, but also reduce the number of nodes needed.

Dynamic and elastic scaling of pod resources

Kubernetes has the unique ability to modify memory, CPU, and disk to scale databases based on workload demands. The ability to scale automatically without incurring downtime is invaluable for large enterprises that regularly experience spikes in demand.

Consistency and portability across clouds, on-premises and at the edge

Enterprises want to build, deploy, and manage workloads consistently, regardless of location. Additionally, they want to be able to move workloads from one cloud to another. The problem is that most organizations have at least some legacy code that they still run on-premises and would really like to move to the cloud.

Kubernetes enables organizations to deploy infrastructure as code consistently, regardless of location. So if the development team can write a bit of code describing the resource requirements, the platform will take care of it. This provides the same level of control in the cloud that one would have before...