AKS: a great container orchestration service
Microsoft Azure platform offers multiple popular services, Azure Kubernetes Service is one of them and is available on the Microsoft Azure platform since June 2018. AKS is a container orchestration service that helps to manage, scale, and deploy containerized applications in seconds in a cluster environment on Azure.
AKS clusters
Azure Kubernetes Service simplifies deploying a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure by offloading the operational overhead to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks, like health monitoring and maintenance. Since Kubernetes masters are managed by Azure, you only manage and maintain the agent nodes.
When you deploy an AKS cluster, the Kubernetes master and all nodes are deployed and configured automatically. Advanced networking, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) integration, monitoring, and other features can be configured during the deployment process.
You can create an AKS cluster using:
Using template-driven deployment options, like Azure Resource Manager templates and Terraform.
Common uses of AKS
AKS provides a wide variety of options, whether it's to migrate your existing application to the cloud, build a complex application that uses machine learning, or take advantage of the agility that a microservices architecture offers. Here are some of the most common uses that we at SouthLights highlight:
Microservices with AKS: Use Azure Kubernetes Service to simplify the deployment and management of microservices-based architecture. AKS streamlines horizontal scaling, self-healing, load balancing, and secret management.
Lift and shift to containers with AKS: Easily migrate existing application to container(s) and run within the Azure managed Kubernetes service. Control access via integration with Azure Active Directory and access SLA-backed Azure Services such as Azure Database for MySQL using OSBA (Open Service Broker for Azure).
API-first SaaS business model with AKS: Adapt, evolve, and allow faster innovation to turn opportunities into strategic advantages.
Create an API gateway and developer portal in minutes, and publish APIs easily for internal or external use.
Handle any data schema, and adapt quickly to rapid changes.
Connect to back-end services anywhere, and manage, secure, and optimize all APIs in one place.
Machine Learning model training with AKS: This solution idea is about real-time inference on Azure Kubernetes Service. Use AKS when you need high-scale production deployments of your machine learning models. High-scale means capabilities such as fast response time, autoscaling of the deployed service, and logging.
Pros of AKS
After explore some of the features of this cool tool, we list the top benefits of using AKS:
Supports Agile Project Management: AKS is that it supports agile development programs – Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (CD) and DevOps.
Faster application development: Developers spent most of the time on bug-fixing. AKS reduces the debugging time while handling patching, auto-upgrades, and self-healing and simplifies the container orchestration. It definitely saves a lot of time and developers will focus on developing their apps while remaining more productive.
Security and compliance: AKS integrates with Azure Active Directory (AD) and offers on-demand access to the users to greatly reduce threats and risks.
Run any Workload in the Cloud: AKS able to orchestrate any type of workload running in the environment of your choice. You can move .NET applications to Windows Server containers or modernize Java applications in Linux containers and also, run microservices applications in the public cloud.
Southlights DevOps teams deploy Azure AKS on a daily basis on projects of our clients like Matech. If you want to manage, scale, and deploy containerized apps to your project, contact us.
