Ask HN: Why Kubernetes is called Cloud-Native?

by dmpetrov on 6/5/2022, 6:03:09 AM with 4 comments
You still have to run and manage K8S Control Plane / master nodes for resource scheduling.

IMO Cloud-Native is when a cloud manages everything for you. Like S3 storage or AWS Kafka service or AWS Lambda. Managing K8S does not look like "Native".

It looks like K8S holds the spot between Cloud (Cloud-Native) and on-premise. It gives you economy of scale in your on-premise hardware.

I'm missing something?

  • by allencloud on 6/5/2022, 6:14:32 AM

    I do not treat Kubernetes as Cloud-Native. While the ecosystem that CNCF build in centre of Kubernetes provides the shortest way for end-users to achieve cloud native goals.

    What's more, cloud native seems not only by the way how to judge by technology trend, but also by the industry's de facto standard how to use cloud. In the previous one, the tech ecosystem of CNCF could be regarded as the largest one. In the latter one, AWS comes almost without anyone could catch up with.

  • by bg24 on 6/5/2022, 3:46:07 PM

    > IMO Cloud-Native is when a cloud manages everything for you.

    To me, cloud-native is a broad term applied to infrastructure and applications designed with the cloud principles (automation, declarative, scale, integration, developer friendly). It is safe to say that lot of these principles were first released and marketed by AWS. And the ecosystem learned from it.

    Kubernetes is cloud-native because it is built with all those principles. And it an orchestrator for micro-services where are the building blocks of a cloud-native application.