There is always a perceived competition between OpenStack and Kubernetes but in reality, these two giants in open source are a great combination as they compliment each other.
Let's Start with the Basics
Kubernetes is one the most widely used container orchestration technologies out there. The platform is hugely popular because it offers the ability to resolve problems and offers an out-of-the-box way of thinking about deploying, managing, and scheduling the applications. On the other side, OpenStack is a software application that allows a business to run their own Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and it is considered as the future of cloud computing. In 2016, the OpenStack community aimed to reshape OpenStack in Google's image, containerizing OpenStack services and managing them in Kubernetes.
There is always a perceived competition between OpenStack and containers such as Kubernetes but in reality, these two giants in open source technology can be a great combination as both the technologies are complementary to each other. They both solve problems that are similar in nature but on different layers of the stack, so combining both Kubernetes and OpenStack' can give users more scalability and automation than ever before.
How Can Kubernetes and OpenStack Work Together?
Containers are a packaging format with good tools that meet the needs of application developers. Kubernetes is a best-practice application deployment system ensuring the needs of app operators. OpenStack is an infrastructure framework enabling all sorts of infrastructure solutions, ensuring the needs of infrastructure providers. Containers can be aligned with OpenStack, providing infrastructure, allowing them to share networking and storage with other types of computer resources in rich environments. Kubernetes clusters can be deployed in two ways; either manually or through a provisioning API on OpenStack resources. This gives their pods all the benefits of shared infrastructure. Moreover, OpenStack operators can leverage container and Kubernetes technologies to facilitate their deployment and management of OpenStack itself.
The OpenStack services are containerized by using Docker's container format. Additionally, these services can be standardized on Kubernetes as the container orchestration fabric. This can enable OpenStack users to manage OpenStack in the same way that Google manages its services. Kubernetes has the ability to let the enterprise's data move between different clouds, provided that they're both running Kubernetes. That means, with the OpenStack services containerized by using Docker's container format. This will make it possible to move data between OpenStack and other clouds.
