Deciphering container complexity from operations to security

Kubernetes turns 9 this year and with its maturity each year, it brings new challenges that drive seismic influence across the rapidly changing cloud native ecosystem. Each year we see new tools created and existing solutions optimized from new lightweight distributions, new features across Kubernetes management platforms, and container security solutions, all adding value to users but simultaneously contributing to the complexity are facing to run Kubernetes successfully.   

The global costs of all cybercrimes will hit $10.5 trillion in 2025 (Cybersecurity Ventures)  

This growth in complexity has exposed vulnerable and potentially costly fissures across organizations utilizing container-based solutions in their stack. The appeal of Kubernetes through its automatic deployments, portability, scalability, multi-cloud capabilities, and openness provides the same elements for attackers to exploit.   

Data breaches and attacks against organizations are only set to grow and organizations looking to fortify their environments and successfully decipher the complexity of Kubernetes, need to strike the right balance between technology, processes, and people to build a sustainable Kubernetes supply chain.  

Navigating Technology  

With a vibrant ecosystem supporting Kubernetes, healthy scrutiny of technology products is required to ensure the right tools can be trusted and implemented securely into an existing environment. Kubernetes management platform like Rancher, helps teams anchor their priorities as organizations grow by providing the visibility and fundamental operational policies and framework operators need to manage their container workloads. From there, organizations can configure and add complementary solutions like SUSE NeuVector – a full lifecycle container security solution, into their ecosystem and add value across their workloads as they grow.  

Effective Processes   

However, a tool or solution’s effectiveness to solve a problem is only as strong as the processes implemented around it. Deciding what approach and standards teams need to follow is paramount to the container stack’s performance.   

For operators, once a tool has been selected, teams utilizing it across their environment must implement robust processes and policies to extract the most value out of their tool and minimize the possibility of misconfigurations that may lead to attacks from external threats. The same expectation applies to development teams who need rigid processes around code selection, packaging, and testing to insure their applications’ reliability and performance. With these processes, operators and developers can build a productive and systematic Kubernetes supply chain that is simple to manage and secure.    

Empowering People  

Behind every code, policy, process or technology solution is an operator responsible for its implementation and performance. Unfortunately, human error remains one of the biggest vulnerabilities in technology supply chains. Even with the advanced automation capabilities built into Kubernetes, the technical performance of a system is still dependent on human resourcing. 

The utilization of talent is where the crossroads technology meets complexity and can turn into success. Good technology choices empower talent within organizations to upskill, diversify their knowledge, and experiment within safe parameters to test, add, and deploy the best solutions for their organization stack. Supported by good processes, teams can utilize the solutions they have and solve a majority of the common Kubernetes complexities.  

However, one of the challenges facing organizations today, is the lack of expertise available to enterprises looking to empower their technical teams. This is where resources like enterprise support, professional services from providers like SUSE can help bridge the gap and maintain stability across organization’s container supply chains.   

We’ve written a complete eBook that delves into these issues in-depth. Explore what considerations enterprises need in their Kubernetes environment as they look to build a secure container supply chain.

Get access to the eBook here.