Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS) Case Study: Bosch

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is open-source orchestration software for deploying, managing, and scaling containers.

Modern applications are increasingly built using containers, which are microservices packaged with their dependencies and configurations. Kubernetes (pronounced “koo-ber-net-ees”) is open-source software for deploying and managing those containers at scale—and it’s also the Greek word for helmsmen of a ship or pilot. Build, deliver, and scale containerized apps faster with Kubernetes, sometimes referred to as “k8s” or “k-eights.”

Azure Kubernetes service:

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is the quickest way to use Kubernetes on Azure. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) manages your hosted Kubernetes environment, making it quick and easy to deploy and manage containerized applications without container orchestration expertise. It also eliminates the burden of ongoing operations and maintenance by provisioning, upgrading, and scaling resources on demand, without taking your applications offline. Azure DevOps helps in creating Docker images for faster deployments and reliability using the continuous build option.

Features of Azure Kubernetes service:

(1) Easily define, deploy, debug and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes applications and automatically containerise your applications. Use modern application development to accelerate time to market.

(2) Add a full CI/CD pipeline to your AKS clusters with automated routine tasks and set up a canary deployment strategy in just a few clicks. Detect failures early and optimise your pipelines with deep traceability into your deployments.

(3) Gain visibility into your environment with the Kubernetes resources view, control-plane telemetry, log aggregation and container health, accessible in the Azure portal and automatically configured for AKS clusters. 

(4) Easily provision fully managed clusters with Prometheus based monitoring capabilities.Use Azure Advisor to optimize your Kubernetes deployments with real-time, personalized recommendations.

(5) Use AKS to simplify the deployment and management of microservices based architecture. AKS streamlines horizontal scaling, self-healing, load balancing, secret management.

(6) Get fine-grained identity and access control to Kubernetes resources using Azure Active Directory.Enforce pod security context and configure across multiple clusters with Azure Policy. 

(7) Use the AKS virtual node to provision pods inside ACI that start in seconds. This enables AKS to run with just enough capacity for your average workload.

(8) Implementing secure DevOps together with Kubernetes on Azure, you can achieve the balance between speed and security and deliver code faster at scale.

How AKS is Solving

About Bosch:

Robert Bosch GmbH, commonly known as Bosch, is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch is 92% owned by Robert Bosch Stiftung, a charitable institution.

Problem Statement:

When Robert Bosch GmbH set out to solve the problem of drivers going the wrong way on highways, the goal was to save lives. Other services like this existed in Germany, but precision and speed cannot be compromised. Could Bosch get precise enough location data—in real time—to do this? The company knew it had to try.

How the solution worked:

The wrong-way driver warning solution runs as a service on Azure and provides an SDK. Service providers, such as smartphone app developers and OEM partners, can install the WDW SDK to make use of the service within their products. The SDK maintains a list of hotspots within which GPS data is collected anonymously. These hotspots include specific locations, such as segments of divided highways and on-ramps. Every time a driver enters a hotspot, the client generates a new ID, so the service remains anonymous. 

Today the solution ingests approximately 6 million requests per day from devices emitting GPS data or from a partner’s back-end system. Anyone can download the SDK and try it out. The APIs grant a free request quota for test accounts. For production use, service providers request permission and then use the WDW SDK to register themselves for their own API authentication keys via the Azure API Management developer portal. Within their application, they configure the service’s endpoints by authenticating with their key for ingress and push notifications. The WDW service on Azure does the rest.

When a driver using a WDW-configured app or in-car system enters a hotspot, the WDW SDK begins to collect GPS signals and sensor events, such as acceleration and rotational data and heading information. These data points are packaged as observations and sent in the frequency of 1 Hertz (Hz)—one event per second—via HTTP to the WDW service on Azure, either directly or to the service provider’s back end, and then to Azure. The SDK supports both routes so that service providers stay in charge of the data that is sent to the WDW system.

If the WDW service determines that the driver is going the wrong way within a hotspot, it sends a notification to the originating device and to other drivers in the vicinity who are also running an app with the WDW SDK.

Bosch official on using AKS:

Using AKS was a strategic decision. We looked for a managed orchestrator so we could offload the work of patching, upgrading, and production-level services. That’s why we chose AKS—and it’s a very open, flexible platform. - Hai Dang Le: technical lead, Bosch

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