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

Kubernetes running on Hybrid Multicloud environments will be the norm in 2023

By Eric Han, VP, Product Management, Cloud at NetApp

The last 2 years have seen significant acceleration in the shift to cloud, with most organizations moving to a distributed IT infrastructure that is spread across multiple clouds.   

Containers are an essential part of many businesses as they are secure and scalable. Container adoption and Kubernetes (K8s) have both gone mainstream with Kubernetes becoming the de facto standard for managing containerized environments. By 2023, Gartner expects that 70 percent of organizations will be running more than two containerized applications. Kubernetes usage has also risen, particularly in large organizations, with 61 percent of organizations having already deployed K8s workloads applications and 30 percent hoping to in the next 12 months (Source).   

Eric Han, VP, Product Management, Cloud at NetApp shares a few key and compelling trends and predictions in the domain of containers, Kubernetes and all things multicloud for 2023:   

• Manage Kubernetes clusters as cattle - A key trend for 2023 and beyond is to create lots of clusters and use tools to manage 100s - 1000s of clusters at scale. The intention is to transition away from managing "clusters as pets" (a few large clusters hosting all applications) and using K8s as a true cluster operating system where the "cluster is the computer." Kubernetes at its core is also a cluster commoditization technology making it easy to create, run, and operate clusters at scale.  
  

• Enterprise Kubernetes apps will need advanced data services - As more business-critical and data-rich apps get containerized and run-on Kubernetes, they will need a richer set of data services for protection, mobility, disaster recovery, compliance, and governance. Stateful applications will become ubiquitous with advanced data management needs, ransomware protection, and disaster tolerance.  
  

• ISV driven K8s application patterns will take up more headspace than enterprise application needs - Looking at the current economy, cost optimization and efficiency will be major themes for 2023. There will be a focus on the basics of what is necessary to compete and evaluating what might be good ideas though not the right time. Many organizations are looking for solutions that simplify, control costs, and deliver critical functionality more predictably. Solutions that are right sized, cost efficient, and laser focused on customer challenges will find the most growth in this environment. NetApp is focused on delivering the enterprise grade storage across clouds for traditional and Kubernetes applications.  
  

• Multicloud disillusionment will fade; successful teams will be adopting multicloud for the right patterns - Teams are moving through the trough of disillusionment regarding multicloud deployment and management. Solutions that simplify management across cloud deployments will continue to help customers drive value and cut costs by leveraging the best solution for each workload. Savvy customers will expand and optimize their use of multicloud strategies at the same time.    
  

Adoption will keep accelerating in 2023, and cloud adoption is growing so rapidly that it seems the future of the computing world will be dominated by platforms like Kubernetes. 2023 will, however, also be a year of uncertainty, like the previous two years, but with great promise. Organizations across the board will be exploring solutions that simplify, control costs and offer fast adaptability. This is where multicloud, containers and Kubernetes will shine.   

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Han is the Vice President of Product Management at NetApp. Prior to NetApp, Eric ran product management at container-native storage company Portworx where he was responsible for the product roadmap and early customer development. During his time at the company, Eric took the team from pre-product to over 120 customers with 45 in the Global 2000.

Eric started his container journey as the founding product manager for Kubernetes at Google, where he also co-founded Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) service. While at Google and Kubernetes, Eric was responsible for ecosystem development. Eric began his career at Microsoft in the product teams for Windows Server and Core Networking working on distributed systems and network management.

Eric holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois.