Why GSS on Kubernetes?

Smallworld Geo Spatial Server is solution to provide web services with data in VMDS. It has multiple components like Service Provider that is primarily responsible to connect to VMDS to get data, an application server like Node to expose/manage the service requests, RabbitMQ for asynchronous?requests etc. Before we discuss why is GSS moved on to Kubernetes let's understand what is Kubernetes and why is it used.

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that can be used to manage containerized applications at scale. Kubernetes provides a number of features, including automatic deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.?This can help increase the efficiency of your development and operations teams, as well as improve the portability of your applications.

?We understand Kubernetes can be used to manage containers but what are containers/ containerization and what it has to do with GSS?

?A container is a type of computer system in which the components are isolated from each other. This isolation can offer a number of benefits, including increased security, portability, and efficiency.

Containerization is a form of virtualization where applications are packaged into isolated containers. This allows them to be run on any platform without the need for a specific operating system or runtime environment. This can help?improve the portability of your applications also.

?With such benefits from containerization, doing it for a complex application like GSS is a good idea. Along with Service Provider application there are other open source components like node server, RabbitMQ etc. that are built into the 5.x solution and these open source components are already containerized and so including them along with the containerized GSS service provider will make the deployment easy.

?However managing these multiple containers after deployment need special tools and it will be great if it can help orchestrating them based on the number of service hits and the through put demand of the integrated systems. Kubernetes suites this well for orchestration and implementing it perfectly fits the situation.

?Along with orchestration, Kubernetes can also help in multiple other aspects.. The other top?advantages of Kubernetes include -

• ?Increased Efficiency and Productivity - By automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, Kubernetes can help increase the efficiency and productivity of your development and operations teams.
• ??Increased Scalability - Kubernetes can help increase the scalability of your applications by allowing you to easily add or remove nodes as needed. This can help you better meet the needs of your users and ensure that your applications can handle increased traffic.
• ?Improved Resource Utilization - Kubernetes can help you optimize your use of compute, storage, and networking resources, leading to increased efficiency and cost savings.
• ?Enhanced Security and Compliance - By isolating individual containers and providing role-based access control, Kubernetes can help you improve the security of your applications and meet compliance requirements

?With all these benefits of containerization and Kubernetes, using it for GSS based solution deployments fits the purpose very well and helps us setup, maintain and scale the solution effectively.

?In the next article lets discuss the ways of deployment and how easy or difficult it is.

#Smallworld #MagikMinds #GSS #Kubernetes #Docker #Containers