Having used Docker Compose/Swarm for last two years, I remember having problems with them twice. One of which was an MTU setting which I didn't really understand why, but overall I was relatively happy with them. Since Kubernetes seems to have won, I decided to learn it but got some disappointments.
The first disappointment is setting up a local development environment. I failed to get minikube running on a Macbook Air 2013 and a Ubuntu Thinkpad. Both have VTx enabled and Docker and VirtualBox running flawlessly. Their online interactive tutorial was good though, enough for the learning purpose.
Production setup is a bigger disappointment. The only easy and reliable ways to have a production grade Kubernetes cluster are to lock yourself into either a big player cloud provider, or an enterprise OS (Redhat/Ubuntu), or introduce a new layer on top of Kubernetes [1]. Locking myself into enterprise Ubuntu/Redhad is expensive, and I'm not comfortable with adding a new, moving, unreliable layer on top of Kubernestes which is built on top of Docker. One thing I like about the Docker movement is that they commoditize infrastructure and reduce lock-ins. I can design my infrastructure so it can utilize an open source based cloud product first and easily move to others or self-host if needed. With Kubernetes, things are going the other way. Even if I never moved out of the big 3 (AWS/Azure/GCloud), the migration process could be painful since their Kubernetes may introduce further lock-ins for logging, monitoring, and so on.
[1]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/pick-right-solution/
The first disappointment is setting up a local development environment. I failed to get minikube running on a Macbook Air 2013 and a Ubuntu Thinkpad. Both have VTx enabled and Docker and VirtualBox running flawlessly. Their online interactive tutorial was good though, enough for the learning purpose.
Production setup is a bigger disappointment. The only easy and reliable ways to have a production grade Kubernetes cluster are to lock yourself into either a big player cloud provider, or an enterprise OS (Redhat/Ubuntu), or introduce a new layer on top of Kubernetes [1]. Locking myself into enterprise Ubuntu/Redhad is expensive, and I'm not comfortable with adding a new, moving, unreliable layer on top of Kubernestes which is built on top of Docker. One thing I like about the Docker movement is that they commoditize infrastructure and reduce lock-ins. I can design my infrastructure so it can utilize an open source based cloud product first and easily move to others or self-host if needed. With Kubernetes, things are going the other way. Even if I never moved out of the big 3 (AWS/Azure/GCloud), the migration process could be painful since their Kubernetes may introduce further lock-ins for logging, monitoring, and so on.
[1]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/pick-right-solution/