Since the emergence of Kubernetes, we hoped that developers will adopt it. That did not happen, and it will likely never happen. Developers do not need Kubernetes. They need to write code, and they need an easy way to build, test, and deploy their applications. It is unrealistic to expect developers to spend years learning Kubernetes. On the other hand, operators and sysadmins need Kubernetes. It gives them all they need to run systems at scale. Nevertheless, operators also need to empower developers to deploy their own applications. They need to enable developers by providing services rather than doing actual deployments. So, we have conflicting needs. Kubernetes is necessary to some and a burden to others. Can we satisfy all? Can we have a system that is based on Kubernetes yet easy to operate? Can we make Kubernetes disappear and become an implementation detail running in the background? Let's discuss where Kubernetes is going and how it might look like in the future.
Viktor Farcic is an Open-Source Program Manager & Developer Advocate at Shipa, a member of the Google Developer Experts and Docker Captains groups, and a published author. His big passions are DevOps, GitOps, Microservices, Continuous Integration, Delivery and Deployment (CI/CD), and Test-Driven Development (TDD). He often speaks at community gatherings and conferences. He is a host of the YouTube channel DevOps Toolkit and a co-host of DevOps Paradox. He published The DevOps Toolkit Series and Test-Driven Java Development.