Aviatrix Blog 
A version of this article was published by TFIR.
Kubernetes has significantly influenced modern application deployment practices. Since its inception, it has rapidly become the undisputed standard for container orchestration, enabling organizations to build, deploy, and scale applications with unprecedented ease and efficiency. The rise of GenAI and data intelligence applications has further established Kubernetes as a technology in enabling the deployment of training, tuning, and serving AI models further accelerating Kubernetes adoption. However, the distributed nature of modern applications demands multicloud and hybrid deployments, introducing new networking challenges.
The Proliferation of Kubernetes Clusters
Organizations adopting Kubernetes often manage multiple clusters distributed across diverse environments, including multiple clouds, on-premises, and edge. However, as the number of Kubernetes clusters grows, so does the complexity of managing, connecting, and securing these distributed environments. Consequently, many of these clusters are prone to attacks due to exposure to the internet, lack of secure connectivity, or weak certificates.
As organizations look at rapid deployment of applications, platform engineering teams are trying to deliver self service environments to their application teams so that they can easily deliver value to their customers. Though application teams need rapid deployment, platform engineering teams are responsible for connectivity, security, and governance while maintaining compliance needs.
Challenges of Connecting Distributed Kubernetes Deployments
Connecting distributed Kubernetes deployments is a strategic imperative for organizations looking to fully leverage the potential of Kubernetes in multicloud, hybrid, or edge environments. Traditional networking solutions often fall short. They are not designed to meet the dynamic demands of Kubernetes and the unique requirements of modern workloads.
Platform engineering teams also need to implement security and governance through egress and ingress traffic management. Finally, there is a need for cookie cutter self-service automation keeping in mind that Kubernetes is heavy on IP address utilization or have overlapping IP spaces. The dynamic nature of IP address utilization makes it difficult to have precise security enforcement. From a governance perspective, organizations also want to reduce internet facing surfaces as much as possible.
Multicloud Kubernetes Networking is The Ideal Solution
Multicloud Kubernetes Networking (MKN) is a cloud independent networking solution that aims to address the challenges of connecting Kubernetes deployments, whether in different VPCs, clouds, on-prem, or Edge. It provides a consistent, comprehensive, cross-cloud, cross-deployment solution that ensures scalable, secure, and high-performance connectivity for Kubernetes, regardless of where they are deployed. It handles Kubernetes’s dynamic nature, providing the agility and flexibility needed to support modern workloads like GenAI.
It also offers robust security so that the clusters are not exposed to hackers by providing end-to-end encryption, egress security, and granular segmentation with minimal attack surface. It creates a strong security posture, where enumerated services are exposed to the internet while all other endpoints remain private, helping with overlapping IP addresses and IP exhaustion while reducing need of public IP addresses. It also provides defense in depth and nicely complements application layer security through technologies like service mesh.
Networking solution for multicloud and hybrid multi-cluster Kubernetes solution.
Key Value Propositions:
- Segmentation and secure egress for multi-cluster deployments
- Scaling k8s clusters without worrying about IP exhaustion or overlap
- Secure hybrid connectivity across clusters and data for AI/ML workload
Segmentation and Secure Egress for Multi-Cluster Deployments
Multicloud Kubernetes Networking provides distributed network security solutions for containerized enterprise applications. Imagine your security exposure with VPCs and VNETs allowing direct access to the Internet. The solution can provide a secure overlay with access control that bridges the gap between VMs and Kubernetes. The MKN Controller adds intent-based policy creation to define security policies using native container workload identities like clusters, nodes, pods, namespaces, services, etc. This helps in security and governance for cross cloud multi-cluster deployments with simple policies. The controller watches Kubernetes constructs, Cloud Asset Inventory as well as VM constructs to enforce the intent as things change dynamically.
It can be applied to multiple traffic patterns, like egress to the internet, Cloud ingress as well as East/West between workloads in clouds and on-premise data centers. The distributed nature of the solution allows traffic destined for the internet to break out locally, instead of having to send it to a centralized inspection point. This provides significant cost savings on data charges, prevents bottlenecks, and shrinks failure domains, leading to better resiliency.
Distributed Cloud Firewall providing secure egress internet access as well as platform security and governance.
Scaling Kubernetes Clusters Without IP Exhaustion or Overlap
Kubernetes environments demand extensive IP resources, often leading to address exhaustion in enterprise networks, hindering swift deployment of new environments.
Multicloud Kubernetes Networking enables organizations to deploy Kubernetes clusters efficiently by utilizing IP space more effectively, preventing pod-related IP address exhaustion. In general, only a fraction of the VPC or VNET needs to be routed, containing the ingress controller and services. Connectivity for pods to the broader organization, both in the cloud and on-premise, is facilitated through advanced NAT capabilities mitigating IP address exhaustion. Moreover, it allows for reusable IP space for non-routed pods which facilitates cookie-cutter Kubernetes cluster creation, streamlining the deployment process. The controller works with API servers to automatically implement the NAT and routing policies through NAT Gateways.
Organizations trying to reduce use of external IP addresses can use internet breakouts for externally visible services while providing routable access for East/West access of pods and services. This helps in reducing attack surface while implementing governance and compliance as well as reducing cost.
Multicloud Networking gateways provide advanced NAT and routing capabilities.
Secure Hybrid Connectivity for AI/ML Workloads
Multi-cluster Kubernetes connectivity can be complex, especially when spanning across multiple clouds, on-prem, and edge. It offers a robust solution for seamless secure overlay connectivity between Kubernetes clusters, whether within a single region, across different clouds, or with on-premise data centers. It provides transit solutions so that organizations can achieve encrypted flat network connectivity without proliferation of external IPs, facilitating direct pod-to-pod communication across clusters without the need for East/West gateways. This architecture also empowers organizations to utilize Cloud Firewall and other security capabilities for East/West traffic, significantly bolstering network security for inter-cluster communication.
High speed encrypted connectivity.
Conclusion
Kubernetes has revolutionized how we build and manage applications, but as its adoption continues to grow, so do the challenges of managing distributed deployments. Newer workloads like GenAI have introduced new challenges.
Multicloud Kubernetes networking is the ideal solution for organizations looking to overcome these challenges. The cross-cloud, cross-deployment platform provides the scalability, performance, and security needed to support modern multi-cluster Kubernetes environments helping organizations realize the full potential of Kubernetes, ensuring they can scale and secure their deployments with confidence.
To learn more about Kubernetes and the cloud native ecosystem, join us at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 12-15, 2024 at booth T25.