Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Cloud Foundry vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
Comparison between Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes
Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes are both popular container orchestration platforms used for managing and deploying applications. While they have some similarities in terms of functionality, there are key differences that set them apart.
Architecture: Cloud Foundry is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform that provides a complete solution for application deployment, while Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that focuses on managing container workloads. Cloud Foundry abstracts away the infrastructure details and provides a higher level of abstraction, whereas Kubernetes provides more flexibility and control over container runtime and networking configurations.
Working with containers: Cloud Foundry abstracts the concept of containers, allowing developers to push their applications without worrying about containerization. On the other hand, Kubernetes relies heavily on containers and provides advanced features for managing containerized workloads, including scaling, load balancing, and rolling updates.
Scalability and High Availability: Kubernetes offers advanced features for scaling and managing clusters based on demand, allowing for horizontal scaling and highly available deployments. Cloud Foundry also provides scaling capabilities but focuses more on the application level scaling, allowing for autoscaling based on application metrics.
Multi-cloud Support: Kubernetes has a more flexible approach to multi-cloud support and can run on various cloud providers. It allows for hybrid deployments and provides a consistent experience across different platforms. Cloud Foundry, on the other hand, is more tightly integrated with specific cloud platforms, such as VMware's vSphere or Cloud Foundry BOSH, limiting the choice of deployment options.
Ease of Use: Cloud Foundry provides a user-friendly interface and abstracts away the complexities of managing infrastructure and middleware components. It simplifies the deployment process and promotes rapid application development. Kubernetes, while powerful, has a steeper learning curve and requires more technical expertise to set up and manage.
Ecosystem and Integrations: Kubernetes has a vast ecosystem of tools, extensions, and integrations, making it highly extensible and customizable. It offers a wide range of plug-ins and supports various integrations with monitoring, logging, and networking tools. Cloud Foundry also has an ecosystem of tools and services but is more focused on delivering a complete platform experience, with built-in services like databases, messaging queues, and logging.
In Summary, Cloud Foundry is a PaaS platform that offers a higher level of abstraction, easy deployment, and a focus on application-level scaling, while Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that provides more flexibility, advanced container management features, and multi-cloud support.
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.
Pros of Cloud Foundry
- Perfectly aligned with springboot2
- Free distributed tracing (zipkin)1
- Application health management1
- Free service discovery (Eureka)1
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution166
- Simple and powerful129
- Open source107
- Backed by google76
- The right abstractions58
- Scale services25
- Replication controller20
- Permission managment11
- Supports autoscaling9
- Simple8
- Cheap8
- Self-healing6
- Open, powerful, stable5
- Reliable5
- No cloud platform lock-in5
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice5
- Scalable4
- Quick cloud setup4
- Custom and extensibility3
- Captain of Container Ship3
- Cloud Agnostic3
- Backed by Red Hat3
- Runs on azure3
- A self healing environment with rich metadata3
- Everything of CaaS2
- Gke2
- Golang2
- Easy setup2
- Expandable2
- Sfg2
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Cloud Foundry
Cons of Kubernetes
- Steep learning curve16
- Poor workflow for development15
- Orchestrates only infrastructure8
- High resource requirements for on-prem clusters4
- Too heavy for simple systems2
- Additional vendor lock-in (Docker)1
- More moving parts to secure1
- Additional Technology Overhead1
Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions
What is Cloud Foundry?
What is Kubernetes?
Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions
What tools integrate with Cloud Foundry?
What tools integrate with Kubernetes?
Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions
Blog Posts
+1
+2
+9
+11
+11+7
+12
+2