Helios vs Kubernetes

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Helios vs Kubernetes: What are the differences?

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a comparison between Helios and Kubernetes, highlighting the key differences between the two.

  1. Scalability: Helios is a platform that focuses on scalability, providing a streamlined way to run Docker containers across a cluster of nodes. It allows for easy scaling of applications, managing deployments, and ensuring high availability. On the other hand, Kubernetes is a more comprehensive container orchestration platform that also focuses on scalability but provides additional features such as automated scaling, load balancing, and self-healing capabilities.

  2. Flexibility: Helios provides a simpler and more straightforward approach to container management, making it ideal for smaller projects or deployments that don't require complex orchestration. It has a smaller learning curve and is easier to set up compared to Kubernetes. In contrast, Kubernetes offers a highly flexible and extensible platform, allowing users to define complex deployment scenarios and manage various workloads using its robust API and extensive ecosystem of plugins and tools.

  3. Container Networking: Helios primarily relies on the native Docker networking capabilities for container communication. It supports Docker's built-in network drivers and enables containers to communicate with each other through IP addresses or DNS names. On the other hand, Kubernetes provides its own container networking model and has features like service discovery, load balancing, and network policies built into its networking layer. It offers more advanced networking options, including overlay networks and network policies, for finer control over container communication.

  4. Service Discovery: Helios does not have built-in service discovery mechanisms, requiring users to rely on external tools or manual configuration to enable service discovery between containers. By contrast, Kubernetes has a built-in DNS-based service discovery mechanism, allowing containers to locate and communicate with each other using service names. It provides automatic DNS resolution for services, making it easier to manage and discover services within a cluster.

  5. Resource Management: Helios does not provide advanced resource management features like resource quotas or limits for individual containers. It primarily focuses on scheduling and deployment management. In contrast, Kubernetes offers robust resource management capabilities, allowing users to define resource quotas, limits, and requests at both the cluster and container level. It provides better control over resource allocation and ensures fair sharing of resources among containers and applications.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Helios has a smaller user community and ecosystem compared to Kubernetes. While Helios is intended for simpler container deployments, Kubernetes has gained widespread adoption and has a large and active community contributing to its development. This vibrant community has helped create a rich ecosystem of tools, libraries, and plugins that extend the functionality of Kubernetes and provide additional features and integration options.

In summary, Helios is a simpler and more lightweight container management platform that focuses on scalability and ease of use, while Kubernetes is a comprehensive container orchestration platform with advanced features, extensibility, and a large community ecosystem.

Advice on Helios and Kubernetes

Hello, we have a bunch of local hosts (Linux and Windows) where Docker containers are running with bamboo agents on them. Currently, each container is installed as a system service. Each host is set up manually. I want to improve the system by adding some sort of orchestration software that should install, update and check for consistency in my docker containers. I don't need any clouds, all hosts are local. I'd prefer simple solutions. What orchestration system should I choose?

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Replies (1)
Mortie Torabi
Recommends
on
Docker SwarmDocker Swarm

If you just want the basic orchestration between a set of defined hosts, go with Docker Swarm. If you want more advanced orchestration + flexibility in terms of resource management and load balancing go with Kubernetes. In both cases, you can make it even more complex while making the whole architecture more understandable and replicable by using Terraform.

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Decisions about Helios and Kubernetes
Michael Roberts

We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.

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Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 30 upvotes · 8.9M 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 Helios
Pros of Kubernetes
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 164
      Leading docker container management solution
    • 128
      Simple and powerful
    • 106
      Open source
    • 76
      Backed by google
    • 58
      The right abstractions
    • 25
      Scale services
    • 20
      Replication controller
    • 11
      Permission managment
    • 9
      Supports autoscaling
    • 8
      Cheap
    • 8
      Simple
    • 6
      Self-healing
    • 5
      No cloud platform lock-in
    • 5
      Promotes modern/good infrascture practice
    • 5
      Open, powerful, stable
    • 5
      Reliable
    • 4
      Scalable
    • 4
      Quick cloud setup
    • 3
      Cloud Agnostic
    • 3
      Captain of Container Ship
    • 3
      A self healing environment with rich metadata
    • 3
      Runs on azure
    • 3
      Backed by Red Hat
    • 3
      Custom and extensibility
    • 2
      Sfg
    • 2
      Gke
    • 2
      Everything of CaaS
    • 2
      Golang
    • 2
      Easy setup
    • 2
      Expandable

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of Helios
    Cons of Kubernetes
      Be the first to leave a con
      • 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

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is Helios?

      Helios is a Docker orchestration platform for deploying and managing containers across an entire fleet of servers. Helios provides a HTTP API as well as a command-line client to interact with servers running your containers.

      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.

      Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

      What companies use Helios?
      What companies use Kubernetes?
      See which teams inside your own company are using Helios or Kubernetes.
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      What tools integrate with Helios?
      What tools integrate with Kubernetes?

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      What are some alternatives to Helios and Kubernetes?
      Apollo
      Build a universal GraphQL API on top of your existing REST APIs, so you can ship new application features fast without waiting on backend changes.
      Docker Compose
      With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.
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