#009 - Kubernetes for Humans Podcast with Josh Rosso (Reddit)
Nov 7, 2023
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Josh Rosso, Principal Engineer at Reddit, talks about Reddit's transition to Kubernetes, code deployment with specialized parameters, challenges in infrastructure development, performance optimization, and scaling Kubernetes operators and controllers. He shares insights on managing clusters, improving performance, and the future of infrastructure management using Kubernetes principles.
Joshua's journey from CoreOS to Reddit showcases the evolution of Kubernetes usage in scaling infrastructure.
Reddit's adoption of Kubernetes highlights the balance between standardization and flexibility for diverse service requirements.
Deep dives
Joshua's Career Journey from CoreOS to Heptio to Reddit
Joshua discusses his career path, starting with his work at a startup utilizing Docker containers and Kubernetes pre-1.0. He then joined CoreOS, contributing to tech later seen in OpenShift. Subsequently, he worked at Heptio on upstream Kubernetes projects, emphasizing Cluster API. Finally, Joshua joined Reddit to manage infrastructure at scale, highlighting the challenges and benefits of using Kubernetes.
Managing Infrastructure Evolution at Reddit with Kubernetes
Joshua details the infrastructure evolution at Reddit, emphasizing the shift towards standardization with Kubernetes. Reddit leverages Kubernetes for various services, including stateless services like GraphQL and stateful systems like Kafka. The platform acts as a blend of managed services and self-hosted solutions, crucial for Reddit's high-traffic platform.
Balancing Developer Autonomy and Infrastructure Complexity at Reddit
Joshua explains the challenge of balancing developer autonomy and infrastructure complexity at Reddit. Developers interact with abstractions and libraries for deploying code, utilizing declarative settings expressed in Starlark. The team strives to simplify Kubernetes operations for developers while ensuring principled escape hatches for nuanced configurations.
Future Perspectives: Simplified Kubernetes for Specialized Use Cases
Joshua envisions a future where Kubernetes principles are adapted for specialized contexts, such as edge computing in telco environments. Projects like KCP explore minimal API servers with custom controllers, potentially abstracting Kubernetes features. Embracing lightweight solutions like K3S for edge scenarios might revolutionize Kubernetes use cases in niche environments, offering both simplicity and flexibility.
Special KubeCon episode with Josh Rosso, Principal Engineer at Reddit. An experienced software engineer, author (Production Kubernetes, O'Reilly), and technical lead specializing in infrastructure and backend systems. Formerly worked on early Kubernetes at both CoreOS (acquired by RedHat) and Heptio (acquired by VMware).
Don't miss out on Josh speaking at KubeCon NA '23 about Nix, Kubernetes, and the Pursuit of Reproducibility! Sched link: https://sched.co/1R2wJ