Computing on the Edge with Kubernetes: It’s On

I recently sat down with Swapnil Bhartia for his TFiR video show to talk about one of my favorite topics: edge computing. I have a strong personal interest in all things edge, and it’s exciting to focus on Kubernetes edge computing solutions in my role at Rancher Labs.

Rancher is certainly doing a lot of exciting things around edge – notably with K3s, our lightweight Kubernetes distribution that recently became a CNCF Sandbox project (the first Kubernetes distribution with this designation). What’s great about K3s is it’s fast, it’s got a small footprint and it’s dead easy to install (I speak from experience). But what’s more exciting is what our customers are doing with Kubernetes on the edge.

As edge computing matures, we’re seeing so many great use cases – and we’re also seeing different types of edge computing become part of the nomenclature. In the “near edge,” you’ll find telcos and others putting compute resources close to their infrastructure. And then there’s the “far edge” – deployed in a location farthest from the cloud data center and closest to the users – and that’s where K3s has a lot of traction.

K3s use cases are diverse – from wind turbines and factories to restaurants and support trucks rolling with a small Kubernetes cluster. And there are some exciting things happening in U.S. Department of Defense: imagine a soldier carrying a backpack equipped with a K3s clusters or K3s running satellites in space.

Free Event: Computing on the Edge with Kubernetes

Every day we hear from customers who are standing up proof of concepts with K3s and sharing their ideas for how to deploy it as the edge. The possibilities for K3s at the edge are truly limitless. If you get as excited as I do talking about this stuff, join me for an entire day all about edge. Rancher is cohosting the Computing on the Edge with Kubernetes conference on October 21 with Arm, AWS and Microsoft. We’re bringing together thought leaders and customers to share their knowledge and insight about Kubernetes and the edge. If you’re thinking about the edge (or know you should be) you don’t want to miss this free event. I hope to see you there.

Watch my interview with Swapnil to hear more about K3s and the Computing on the Edge with Kubernetes event.