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Borg vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

  1. Provisioning: One key difference between Borg and Kubernetes is in their provisioning capabilities. Borg is designed to manage large-scale, tightly integrated clusters and utilizes a two-level scheduling model where there is a centralized Borgmaster that assigns tasks to individual machines. On the other hand, in Kubernetes, provisioning is handled through a declarative approach using YAML or JSON files where users define the desired state of the system and Kubernetes takes care of scheduling and maintaining that state.

  2. Resource Management: Borg and Kubernetes also differ in their resource management approach. Borg uses a monolithic scheduler that makes global scheduling decisions based on the resource availability across the entire cluster. It optimizes for efficient cluster utilization by packing tasks tightly. In contrast, Kubernetes uses a more modular and decentralized architecture with a scheduler per node. Each node is responsible for scheduling tasks based on its local resources, allowing for better isolation and fault tolerance.

  3. Pod Abstractions: Borg and Kubernetes have different abstractions for containers. In Borg, containers are grouped into job-level abstractions, where each job consists of one or more tasks. This provides a higher-level concept for organizing related containers together. In Kubernetes, the primary abstraction is the "Pod," which represents a group of one or more containers that are scheduled together on the same host. Pod allows for co-located containers to share the same network and storage, facilitating tighter integration between them.

  4. Persistence: Borg and Kubernetes differ in how they handle data persistence. In Borg, applications often rely on Borg Filesystem (BFS) for durable and replicated storage. BFS provides a distributed file system interface to applications running on Borg. Kubernetes, on the other hand, does not provide its own distributed file system but instead offers various mechanisms for persistent storage, such as Persistent Volumes and Persistent Volume Claims, which enable applications to request and consume storage resources in a platform-agnostic way.

  5. Monitoring and Logging: Borg and Kubernetes have different approaches to monitoring and logging. Borg provides a built-in monitoring and logging system, which collects and aggregates metrics and logs from all tasks running on the cluster. It offers a centralized interface for querying and retrieving these data. In Kubernetes, monitoring and logging are typically handled by separate tools and systems, such as Prometheus for monitoring and Elasticsearch-Fluentd-Kibana (EFK) stack for logging. Kubernetes provides APIs and integrations for these external systems to collect and analyze the monitoring and logging data.

  6. Maturity and Adoption: While both Borg and Kubernetes are widely used for container orchestration, there is a difference in their maturity and adoption. Borg was developed internally at Google and has been used in production for many years. It has a proven track record of managing Google's massive-scale workloads. Kubernetes, on the other hand, originated as an open-source project by Google based on their experience with Borg. It has gained significant popularity in the industry and has a vibrant ecosystem with a large community contributing to its development and adoption.

In summary, Borg and Kubernetes differ in their provisioning approach, resource management, container abstractions, data persistence, monitoring/logging strategies, and maturity/adoption levels.

Decisions about Borg and Kubernetes
Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 11.2M views

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

  • GitHub (incl. GitHub Pages/Markdown for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
  • Respectively Git as revision control system
  • SourceTree as Git GUI
  • Visual Studio Code as IDE
  • CircleCI for continuous integration (automatize development process)
  • Prettier / TSLint / ESLint as code linter
  • SonarQube as quality gate
  • Docker as container management (incl. Docker Compose for multi-container application management)
  • VirtualBox for operating system simulation tests
  • Kubernetes as cluster management for docker containers
  • Heroku for deploying in test environments
  • nginx as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
  • SSLMate (using OpenSSL) for certificate management
  • Amazon EC2 (incl. Amazon S3) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
  • PostgreSQL as preferred database system
  • Redis as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

  • Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
  • Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
  • Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
  • Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
  • Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
  • Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.
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Pros of Borg
Pros of Kubernetes
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 166
      Leading docker container management solution
    • 129
      Simple and powerful
    • 107
      Open source
    • 76
      Backed by google
    • 58
      The right abstractions
    • 25
      Scale services
    • 20
      Replication controller
    • 11
      Permission managment
    • 9
      Supports autoscaling
    • 8
      Simple
    • 8
      Cheap
    • 6
      Self-healing
    • 5
      Open, powerful, stable
    • 5
      Reliable
    • 5
      No cloud platform lock-in
    • 5
      Promotes modern/good infrascture practice
    • 4
      Scalable
    • 4
      Quick cloud setup
    • 3
      Custom and extensibility
    • 3
      Captain of Container Ship
    • 3
      Cloud Agnostic
    • 3
      Backed by Red Hat
    • 3
      Runs on azure
    • 3
      A self healing environment with rich metadata
    • 2
      Everything of CaaS
    • 2
      Gke
    • 2
      Golang
    • 2
      Easy setup
    • 2
      Expandable
    • 2
      Sfg

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    Cons of Borg
    Cons of Kubernetes
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      • 16
        Steep learning curve
      • 15
        Poor workflow for development
      • 8
        Orchestrates only infrastructure
      • 4
        High resource requirements for on-prem clusters
      • 2
        Too heavy for simple systems
      • 1
        Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)
      • 1
        More moving parts to secure
      • 1
        Additional Technology Overhead

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      What is Borg?

      It is a deduplicating backup program. It provides an efficient and secure way to backup data. The data deduplication technique used makes it suitable for daily backups since only changes are stored. The authenticated encryption technique makes it suitable for backups to not fully trusted targets.

      What is Kubernetes?

      Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

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      What companies use Borg?
      What companies use Kubernetes?
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      What tools integrate with Borg?
      What tools integrate with Kubernetes?

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