Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Reshaping Kubernetes Skills and Data Security

By Gaurav Rishi, VP of Product and Partnerships at Kasten by Veeam

In recent years, Kubernetes has become the go-to system for organizations and IT departments looking to containerize applications to meet different workloads. The move to containerization is occurring rapidly, with Gartner reporting that 75% of organizations are running containerized apps.

However, there is a significant skills gap within IT teams as they shift into this new era of data security and learning about all Kubernetes can offer. In 2023, it will be crucial for organizations to invest in education and training to get their current IT/DevOps teams up to speed, especially during a time when available new talent is tough to come by - employers spend more than $800,000 annually seeking qualified talent for tech roles.

The skills gap hasn't been the only mountain that organizations had to climb this year - finding vendors that walk the walk, the rise in ransomware attacks, and supply chain troubles have plagued leadership and its very likely these issues will spill into 2023. Diving into more detail, here are my top predictions for the Kubernetes skills gap and other challenges that will take teams to task in the new year.

Removing roadblocks to Kubernetes' growth and advancement

The growing Kubernetes market will come up against three vectors in 2023: people, technology, and processes. 

The Kubernetes skills gap will be an ongoing concern. However, many initiatives including learning platforms, templated 'getting started' packs, etc. are being introduced across the industry to narrow this gap. KubeCon 2022 demonstrated that Kubernetes is still on its way up, as 64% of the attendees were first timers, signaling a growing ecosystem and greater interest.  

On the technological side, learning and operating new software and tools will be a challenge. Companies seeking to avoid this must acknowledge the importance of pushing for simplicity in operations and adding autonomous operations. Using the right cloud-native tools will help organizations get past the challenges they faced previously. It's also critical to make sure the tools you invest in are from legitimate vendors you can trust. 

On the processes side, companies will struggle to determine a clear approach to their Kubernetes adoption and deployment. DevSecOps and operationalizing best practices to empower the platform and CloudOps team are important in eliminating these roadblocks. Although these are still rather new to organizations, there is an effective and growing cloud-native community that will provide a way forward. 

Data Security in today's challenging environment

Over the past ten years, more than 1,000 global software technology unicorns have been minted. However, only 200 such-valued companies exist in the public markets, highlighting that only a small subset of these private unicorns will make it unscathed to the public markets. In 2023, we can expect a stronger need for reliable companies and a focus on sound investments as enterprises choose strategic partners and vendors. 

Currently, ransomware attacks are rising, and the global supply chain is a concern. With the growing gap in cybersecurity knowledge and skills, organizations will be well served to incorporate data protection policy guardrails early in their development and deployment cycles. Enforcing operational best practices (e.g., RPO objectives), denying risky deployments (e.g., immutability not enabled) and using policy as code principles will better secure your growing cloud-native applications. 

2022 was full of challenges, but 2023 will be ripe with opportunities. As the Great Resignation slows down, it's likely that talent will become more widely available, as well as the opportunity to train and upskill current staff on the processes and importance of data security and Kubernetes.

##

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gaurav Rishi is the VP of Product and Partnerships at Kasten by Veeam. He is at the forefront of several Kubernetes ecosystem partnerships and has been a frequent speaker and author on cloud native innovations. He previously led Strategy and Product Management for Cisco's Cloud Media Processing business. In addition to launching multiple products and growing them to >$100M in revenue, he was also instrumental in several M&A transactions. Gaurav is a computer science graduate and has an MBA from the Wharton School.