Container orchestration features

Multiple container orchestration technologies for ease of consumption

DuploCloud abstracts the complexity of container orchestration technologies, allowing you to focus on the deployment, updating, and debugging of your containerized application.

Among the technologies supported are:

• Azure Kubernetes Service [AKS]: The DuploCloud platform uses AKS, providing you with a user-friendly interface that conceals the complexities of Kubernetes (K8s). Using the UI, you can add K8S configurations around Pods, Containers, Secrets, and so on.

• Built-in (DuploCloud): DuploCloud platform's built-in container management has the same interface as the docker run command, except that it can be scaled to hundreds of containers across many hosts, providing capabilities such as associated load balancers, DNS, and more.

Container orchestration feature matrix

Use the feature matrix below to compare the features of the orchestration technologies that DuploCloud supports. Whatever option you choose, DuploCloud helps you implement it through the Portal or the Terraform API.

One dot indicates a low rating, two dots indicate a medium rating, and three dots indicate a high rating. For example, Kubernetes has a low ease-of-use rating, but a high rating for stateful application support.

Feature	Kubernetes	Built-In
Ease of use
Features and ecosystem Tools
Suitability for stateful apps
Stability and maintenance
Azure cost
Multi-cloud (w/o DuploCloud)

Feature definitions

Use the definitions below to understand how each feature in the matrix above is rated in relation to each of the three listed technologies (Kubernetes, Built-In).

• Ease of Use:

  • Kubernetes is extensible and customizable, but not without a cost in ease of use. The DuploCloud platform reduces the complexities of Kubernetes, making it comparable with other container orchestration technologies in ease of adoption.

  • DuploCloud's Built-in orchestration mirrors docker run. You can SSH into a virtual machine (VM) and run docker commands to debug and diagnose. If you have an application with a few stateless microservices; or configurations that use environment variables or Azure VM extensions, Azure Blob, or Azure Key Vault, consider using DuploCloud's Built-in container orchestration.

• Features and Ecosystem Tools: Kubernetes is rich in many additional built-in features and ecosystem tools, most notably Secrets Management and ConfigMaps. Built-In and AKS rely on native Azure services. While Kubernetes features have an equivalent in Azure, third parties tend to publish their software as Kubernetes packages (Helm Charts). Some examples are Influx DB, Time Series DB, Prefect, etc.

• Suitability for Stateful apps: Stateful applications should be avoided in Azure. Instead, cloud-managed storage solutions should be leveraged for the best availability and SLA compliance. In scenarios where this is undesirable due to cost, Kubernetes offers the best solution. Kubernetes uses StatefulSets and Volumes to implicitly manage Azure Storage volumes. With Built-in and AKS, you must use a shared drive, which may not have feature parity with Kubernetes volume management.

• Stability and Maintenance: Even though Kubernetes is highly stable, it is an open-source product. The native customizability and extensibility of Kubernetes can lead to points of failure when a mandatory cluster upgrade is needed, for example. This complexity often leads to support costs from third-party vendors. Maintenance can be especially costly with AKS, as versions are deprecated frequently and you are required to upgrade the control plane and data nodes. While DuploCloud automates this upgrade process, it still requires careful planning and execution.

• Azure Cost: While the Azure control plane cost is relatively low, it is not recommended to operate an AKS environment without business support at an additional premium. If you are a small business, you may be able to add the support tier when you need it and then turn it off to reduce costs.

• Multi-Cloud: For many enterprises and independent software vendors this is a requirement, either immediately or in the future. While Kubernetes provides this benefit, DuploCloud's implementation is much easier to maintain and easier to implement.