The document discusses the challenges and solutions of self-service cloud resources using Kubernetes, highlighting the need for developer-focused solutions that reduce operational complexity and improve agility. Appvia's approach emphasizes the use of custom resources and service brokers to simplify access to cloud services, enhance developer experience, and ensure best practices. The summary outlines various service broker implementations and their statuses across different cloud providers.

1. Self-service Cloud Resources with Kubernetes

2. Appvia.io
About Appvia
Page 2
Kubernetes for Teams
700+
Developers
500+
applications
5+ years
Kubernetes
experience
70% cost
reduction

3. Today’s expert
Lewis Marshall
SRE, Tech Evangelist,
Appvia

4. Appvia.io
Self-service Cloud Resources
with Kubernetes
Lewis Marshall, Tech Evangelist, SRE, Kore Developer
May 27, 2020

5. Appvia.io
Agenda
Self-service cloud resources with Kubernetes
Page 5
01 Intro - Why it isn’t easy!
02 Problem and Developer Experience
03 Developer Self-Service
04 Self service in Practice
05 Demo Custom Resources
06 Industry Summary
07 Appvia Approach
08 Summary
09 Questions

6. Intro - Why it isn’t easy!

7. Appvia.io
● Lots of products in the industry around cloud infrastructure
● Not many are developer focused
● Developer focused solutions seem to be being replaced with:
○ Operations heavy solutions
○ Domain / Cloud specific solutions
● We had to implement a custom solution around the industry to get a
good outcome
What we learnt from doing self-service
Page 7
The industry is moving

8. Problem and Developer
Experience

9. Appvia.io
● Local container focused development
● Fast to iterate and test when local
● Dependencies are libraries and containers and not
directly cloud
● Velocity drops as cloud services get introduced
● Cloud consumption is brokered and gated and
requires specialist domain knowledge
How it is for a Developer
Page 9
Developer Mindset

10. Appvia.io
● Application in a Kubernetes Cluster
● Cloud provider managed services:
○ Operational overhead removed from team
○ Reliability
○ Simplicity?
What the developer need is
Page 10
Applications consume cloud services via libraries
Application DatabaseCode Library

11. Appvia.io
What’s the Problem?
Page 11
Provisioning Applications and Dependant Services
Application Database
Developer Operations

12. Appvia.io
What’s the Problem?
Page 12
Developers
● Create Containerized Applications
● Deliver to Kubernetes
Operations
● Automation Tools
● Deliver Cloud Resources
Delivery Tools

13. Developer Self-Service

14. Appvia.io
● Reduce lead times
○ No separate team
○ No manual intervention
○ Nothing to approve
● Reliability of updates
○ Application
○ Cloud
● Enables an Agile process
○ Reduces cost
Why Self Service?
Cloud Services
Page 14

15. Appvia.io
● Cost
○ Trust
○ Agility and Reliability
● Security
○ Enables Best Practice
○ Products over Human Error
● Best Practice
○ Simplify Choice e.g. Backups,
Cost, Encryption...
Self Service
Limiting Risk with Informed Choice
Page 15

16. Appvia.io
Developer Self Service
Ideal Flow per Application Instance
Page 16
Application
? Any Cloud Provider
Service
Description
Name & Plan
2. Access
Configuration
E.g. endpoint &
credentials
1. Request

17. Self Service In Practice

18. Appvia.io
Industry Assumptions
● Native Kubernetes
○ Documentation
○ Resource handling
○ Application domain
● Extended Kubernetes
○ Not simple
○ Domain specific
■ Cloud / Ops knowledge
■ What’s the Dev benefit?
Kubernetes Resources
Page 18
Reconcile Intended State

19. Appvia.io
Custom Resources for Cloud Services
Page 19
apiVersion: sql.cnrm.cloud.google.com/v1beta1
kind: SQLInstance
metadata:
name: storedb-instance-001
spec:
databaseVersion: MYSQL_5_7
region: europe-west2
settings:
tier: db-f1-micro
kubectl get SQLInstance
# find configured databases
kubectl edit SQLInstance/storedb-instance-001
# manually change some settings
A Kubernetes resource like any other:
A Cloud Resource
Use familiar tools and deployment systems
apiVersion: service-operator.aws/v1alpha1
kind: SQSQueue
metadata:
name: example-sqs-queue-name
spec:
contentBasedDeduplication: true
delaySeconds: 5
maximumMessageSize: 262144
messageRetentionPeriod: 345600
visibilityTimeout: 30

20. Appvia.io
Scaling custom resources
Page 20
Unique specs for each service
● Different specs for each cloud
● Domain knowledge expected on each service
● No consistency between cloud providers for the Developer
● No guidance on security and best practice
● No high level abstraction

21. Appvia.io
Provides:
● Reuse Service Brokers from CloudFoundry
● Provides Custom Resources
Service Catalog
Open Service Broker API on Kubernetes
kubernetes-sigs/service-catalog
svc-cat.io
Production Ready Amber
Page 21

22. Appvia.io
Simplify delivery of Cloud Services
● Provide default parameters for
services
○ Best Practice
● What is published in a system
○ Vetted Services
Service Broker Plans
Page 22

23. Appvia.io
Request Flow
Application
Service Catalogue
Service Broker(s)
1. Request
Service
2. Request
Cloud Provider
Developer
6. Access
Configuration
Publish Plans
Page 23
5. Status
3. 4.
Open Service Broker API

24. Appvia.io
Request Flow Concrete Example
Application
Service Catalogue
RDS Production
and
Development
Plans
AWS
Service Broker
1. Request
Production
RDS
2. Service Instance
Requested
Cloud Provider
Developer
6. Place RDS Secret
in namespace
(Create service
binding)
Page 24
5. Status
3.
Open Service Broker API
4.
Service instance
created

25. Demo of Custom Resources

26. Appvia.io
Demo of Cloud Resources
Service Catalog
Page 26
apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ServiceInstance
metadata:
name: my-latest-bucket
spec:
clusterServiceClassExternalName: s3
clusterServicePlanExternalName: production
parameters:
---
apiVersion: servicecatalog.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: ServiceBinding
metadata:
name: my-latest-bucket
spec:
instanceRef:
name: my-latest-bucket
secretName: my-latest-bucket
Application
Service Catalogue
1. Request
Service (Plan
and Binding)Developer
2. Configuration
● Use of Plans
● Consume Application Configuration

28. Industry Summary

29. Appvia.io
Product Comparison
Product Application
Services
Time Investment Production Ready Developer Self Service
AWS Service Broker 22 High - Cloudformation Amber - Future Good - Plans
AWS Service Operator 0 NA Red - MVP Unknown
Azure Open Service Broker 3 Amber - No Recent Updates Good - Plans
GCP Service Broker 3 High Amber - Not supported
direction
Good - Plans
GCP Config Connector 7 High Amber - PSP Required Infrastructure Focus
Implied Config
Crosplane ~4 / Cloud High Green Infrastructure Focus
Terraform K8 All High Alpha Infrastructure Focus
Terraform Controller All High Experimental Infrastructure Focus
Page 29

30. Self Service For Developers?

31. Self Service For Developers

32. Appvia.io
Cloud Vendors Direction
Page 32
● Commercial
● Support many customers
○ Reliability at scale
○ Self support
● NOT multi-cloud
● Save customers time and money?
Motives

33. Appvia’s Approach

34. Appvia.io
Kore
Service Plans
Kore Architecture for Cloud Resource
Page 34
Kore
Application
Service Broker(s)
1. Request
service from
plan
Cloud
Provider(s)
Developer
2. Service
credentials secret
created in
namespace
Service Operator(s)

35. Appvia.io
● Self Service
○ Plans
○ Simplicity
● Running Application
○ Consuming Cloud Resources
Demo Appvia Approach
Demo Cloud Resources
Page 35

37. Summary

38. Appvia.io
Summary
Page 38
● Current Solutions for Operations
○ Enable Complexity
○ Not Agility
● Plans Provide
○ Simplicity for Developers
■ Agile
○ Best Practice
■ Oversight
■ Audit
■ Compliance

39. Cloud Resources with
Kubernetes - Questions?

40. Contact Us
Contact us
info@appvia.io
https://appvia.io
Lewis Marshall
SRE, Tech
Evangelist,
Appvia

41. Appendix - Products

42. Appvia.io
AWS Service Broker
Summary
Page 42
awslabs/aws-servicebroker
Application Services 22
Production Ready Amber
Time Investment High
Developer Experience Good
● Provides
○ Plans
○ Application Configuration
● Single Cloud
● Complex
○ Multi tenancy configuration
○ Cloud Dependencies
■ Dynamo DB
■ S3 (Plans)
■ Cloudformation
● Uncertain Future

43. Appvia.io
AWS Service Operator
Page 43
AWS Service Operator for Kubernetes
This repo contains the next generation AWS Service Operator for Kubernetes (ASO).
Status
As of end of 2019 we are in the early stages of planning the redesign of ASO. Check the issues list
for descriptions of work items. We invite any and all feedback and contributions, so please don't
hesitate to submit an issue, a pull request or comment on an existing issue.
Summary
aws/aws-service-operator-k8s
Design Phase MVP on branch
Application Services None yet...
Production Ready Red
“
● No releases yet

44. Appvia.io
● Limited Stable Services:
○ Azure Database for MySQL
○ Azure Database for PostgreSQL v9.6
○ Azure SQL Database
● Single Cloud
Azure Open Service Broker
Summary
Page 44
Azure/open-service-broker
-azure
Application Services 3
Production Ready Amber

45. Appvia.io
● Infrastructure Focus
○ E.g. as an alternative to
CloudFormation
● Only Database, Cache and Object /
Storage
Crossplane
Summary
Page 45
crossplane/crossplane
Application Services 4 AWS, 3 GCP, 4 Azure...
Production Ready Amber - Maybe
Time Investment High
Multi-cloud AWS, GCP, Azure, Alibaba

46. Appvia.io Page 46
Terraform K8
● Provided by Hashicorp
● Requires a Cloud Services Account
● Experimental
Summary
hashicorp/terraform-k8s
Application Services Any
Production Ready Red
Time Investment High
Multi-cloud AWS, GCP...
Terraform + Kubernetes (terraform-k8s)
This experimental repository contains software which is still being developed and in the alpha
testing stage. It is not ready for production use.
“

47. Appvia.io Page 47
Terraform Controller
Summary
rancher/terraform-controller
Application Services Any
Production Ready Red
Time Investment High
Multi-cloud AWS, GCP...
[EXPERIMENTAL] terraform-controller
Use K8s to Run Terraform
NOTE: We are actively experimenting with this in the open. Consider this ALPHA software and
subject to change.
● Provided by Rancher
● Terraform DSL operations focus
● Experimental
“

48. Appvia.io
GCP Service Broker
Page 48
GoogleCloudPlatform/gcp-
service-broker
Application Services 3
Production Ready Amber
“

49. Appvia.io
● Focus CloudFoundry?
● Not actively supported for
Kubernetes Service catalog
● Config Connector...
GCP Service Broker
Summary
Page 49
GoogleCloudPlatform/gcp-
service-broker
Application Services 3
Production Ready Amber

50. Appvia.io Page 50
Google Cloud Platform Config Connector
● Support
○ Detailed Documentation
○ Examples
● Intended direction
● Infrastructure Focus
GCP Config Connector
Features
GoogleCloudPlatform/k8s-config-
connector
Application Services 7
Production Ready Amber
Time Investment High

51. Appvia.io Page 51
● Install GCP Config Connector
● Understand
○ Approach
○ Limitations
GCP Config Connector
Demo
GoogleCloudPlatform/k8s-config-
connector
Application Services 7
Production Ready Amber
Time Investment High

52. Appvia.io Page 52
● Infrastructure Focus
● Limitations
○ No PSP’s
○ Resource Naming
○ Secrets First
○ No Application Configuration
● Intended direction
GCP Config Connector
Summary
GoogleCloudPlatform/k8s-config-
connector
Application Services 7
Production Ready Amber
Time Investment High