Kubernetes On The Fast Track

Kubernetes became a part of the software developer toolbox starting in 2014 when its original developer Google released it as an open-source version of its Borg technology, which was developed as a way to run thousands of jobs and applications across multiple clusters and machines. Since then, Kubernetes has grown to be a significant developer tool as a way to manage applications and data via containers.

Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is now a multibillion-dollar business, which is not bad for something started as an open source project. Market research firm Absolute Reports in June of 2023 estimated the value of the global Kubernetes solutions market to be $2 billion in 2022, but will grow to reach $6.1 billion by 2028, which represents a 20.4-percent cumulative annual growth rate.

Kubernetes is a key part of application development in that it provides a flexible way to automate the deployment of application code.

[Related: The 10 Hottest Kubernetes Startups Of 2022 (So Far) ]

It automates the operational tasks of container management with built-in commands for deploying applications, rolling out changes, scaling them up and down as needed, monitoring applications, and other tasks related to managing them.

While developers can manage the tasks related to Kubernetes on their own, the management takes away from their focus on their main task of writing code. For that reason, the last couple years have seen a wide range of startups enter the business of managing Kubernetes.

CRN looked at 10 startups that have only entered the business of managing Kubernetes in the last two years. These companies provide a wide range of capabilities, including just-in-time permission for security purposes, providing managed runtime services, Kubernetes message broker capabilities, and more. One company, Kubeshop, actually builds teams to tackle new Kubernetes issues found by its core team.

CRN looks at 10 startups looking to bring developers new ways to uses Kubernetes to build and deploy applications using containers to eliminate issues with the underlying infrastructure.

And here’s a fun fact about Kubernetes: In the commonly used short version of the word, K8s, the “8” stands for the eight letters between the “k” and the “s” in the full term Kubernetes.