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Knative vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?
Knative: Kubernetes-based platform for serverless workloads. Knative provides a set of middleware components that are essential to build modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run anywhere: on premises, in the cloud, or even in a third-party data center; Kubernetes: Manage a cluster of Linux containers as a single system to accelerate Dev and simplify Ops. 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.
Knative can be classified as a tool in the "Serverless / Task Processing" category, while Kubernetes is grouped under "Container Tools".
Some of the features offered by Knative are:
- Serving - Scale to zero, request-driven compute model
- Build - Cloud-native source to container orchestration
- Events - Universal subscription, delivery and management of events
On the other hand, Kubernetes provides the following key features:
- Lightweight, simple and accessible
- Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid
- Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable
Knative and Kubernetes are both open source tools. It seems that Kubernetes with 55.1K GitHub stars and 19.1K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Knative with 2.02K GitHub stars and 394 GitHub forks.
Decisions about Knative and Kubernetes
Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 5.6M 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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Learn MorePros of Knative
Pros of Kubernetes
Pros of Knative
- Portability4
- On top of Kubernetes3
- Autoscaling3
- Secure Eventing2
- Eventing2
- Open source2
Pros of Kubernetes
- Leading docker container management solution162
- Simple and powerful127
- Open source104
- Backed by google75
- The right abstractions57
- Scale services24
- Replication controller19
- Permission managment10
- Cheap7
- Simple7
- Supports autoscaling7
- No cloud platform lock-in4
- Self-healing4
- Reliable4
- Quick cloud setup3
- Open, powerful, stable3
- Scalable3
- Promotes modern/good infrascture practice3
- Custom and extensibility2
- Cloud Agnostic2
- Captain of Container Ship2
- A self healing environment with rich metadata2
- Runs on azure2
- Backed by Red Hat2
- Golang1
- Expandable1
- Sfg1
- Everything of CaaS1
- Easy setup1
- Gke1
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Cons of Knative
Cons of Kubernetes
Cons of Knative
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Cons of Kubernetes
- Steep learning curve15
- 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
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- No public GitHub repository available -
What is Knative?
Knative provides a set of middleware components that are essential to build modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run anywhere: on premises, in the cloud, or even in a third-party data center
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 Knative?
What companies use Kubernetes?
What companies use Knative?
See which teams inside your own company are using Knative or Kubernetes.
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What tools integrate with Knative?
What tools integrate with Kubernetes?
What tools integrate with Knative?
What tools integrate with Kubernetes?
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What are some alternatives to Knative and Kubernetes?
Kubeless
Kubeless is a Kubernetes native serverless Framework. Kubeless supports both HTTP and event based functions triggers. It has a serverless plugin, a graphical user interface and multiple runtimes, including Python and Node.js.
OpenFaaS
Serverless Functions Made Simple for Docker and Kubernetes
Fission
Write short-lived functions in any language, and map them to HTTP requests (or other event triggers). Deploy functions instantly with one command. There are no containers to build, and no Docker registries to manage.
Google Cloud Functions
Construct applications from bite-sized business logic billed to the nearest 100 milliseconds, only while your code is running
Istio
Istio is an open platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.