Kubernetes for Cloud Container Orchestration Versus Containers as a Service (CaaS): Practical Insights

Abstract

Containers have become the de facto standard for packaging software today, especially in the cloud. However, manually managing the runtime of containers (i.e., container orchestration) can be very complicated, which is why tooling such as Kubernetes, which allows for managed or semi-managed orchestration, has grown in popularity. It is possible to delegate container management altogether, by opting for Container as a Service (CaaS) offerings. There are important tradeoffs involved in these choices, and while much has been said about how to containerize and adopt a particular container orchestration approach, relatively less has been said about how to decide on which approach might work best. This article outlines why we chose the CaaS approach over Kubernetes at Dottid, and transparently discusses the factors we took into consideration. In doing so, we contribute to the technical corpus, and aim to stimulate further industrial-academic research and collaboration, in this emergent area of study.