The Evolution of Containerization: an interview with red kubes CEO Rouven Besters

The transformation will never stop. The world, and especially the tech world, is in constant evolution. Kubernetes specifically has seen a huge surge in adoption, and as a result, there are many additional requirements for its usage and implementation. This led to the rapid growth of the open-source ecosystem around Kubernetes, which is currently counting 1200+ projects. We have responded to these changes by trying to make Kubernetes more adoptable in a production-ready way. We have invested approximately 25 man-years in Otomi to help standardize, secure, and automate the way companies build Kubernetes platforms and deploy applications to it. As Kennedy said it best, we did not do that because it was easy but because it was hard. And it still is hard, so we see the demand for solutions like Otomi increasing. We also see other companies entering into this field which is another validation of the struggles companies are facing with Kubernetes-based IDP’s. (Internal Development Platforms)

Kubernetes alone is complex, but Otomi makes Kubernetes a lot easier to adopt and also it becomes quicker to deploy and get workloads to production. We abstract that complexity away. That has been the key reason for us to build this startup program, as startups don’t have endless budgets to hire the right talent to build these platforms from the ground up. Next to Otomi, Kubernetes itself is beneficial because of a few reasons. It’s ubiquitous and runs on any cloud, this provides options to choose from in many, also sovereign, clouds. Secondly cost is an important factor for startups. The alternative to containers and, thus, Kubernetes would be to use serverless architectures from the hyperscale clouds. That can become very costly in due time, and when the stack of the start-up is completely engineered in one of those serverless architectures, it’s extremely hard to decouple the application from the underlying cloud architecture. This poses a risk from a financial and dependency perspective. With Otomi, Cloud Serverless Architectures can easily be set up through the kNative project, so start-ups would have the best of both worlds.

Red Kubes are the creators of Otomi, and thus most of the funds will be directed towards expanding features and capabilities in the platform. We have got a lot of news to share on innovations this week. Other parts of the funds will be geared towards expanding our reach and sharing the Otomi message. More companies need to know there is an easier way to adopt Kubernetes and build exceptional developer experiences on top of that.

The main challenges lie in the complexity of all the components required to run a secure, compliant platform with capabilities required to deploy and manage workloads at scale. There are 1200 projects in the CNCF to support some of these required capabilities. We have selected, integrated, automated, configured, the leading projects in Otomi, which will have the startups focus on building their software and differentiate their businesses.

Because of the current state of affairs globally, I expect we will see an increase in demand for ready-to-run systems to produce outcomes through running apps in the hands of end users. Otomi does just that. With regards to our business, we will see a better market in hiring the right talent to build on Otomi’s capabilities. We are setting our financial goals in a way that we will see less of an impact by the current trends in the venture capital and financial market.