Software needs to pave the way for containerization and Kubernetes

It’s very common these days to find yourself using an app or software on your phone for most of your daily tasks, such as adjusting the temperature in your home or even turning on the lights. But in practice, this convenience can be an obstacle – and in the context of providing services to the end customer – has a slightly different priority.

Providing complex and flexible services

Inflexible software can pose a threat to even your carrier’s best plans. Service companies are often complex in nature and through acquisition or organization work together with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), distributors, aftermarket parts manufacturers, or project personnel. room, they are often threatened by the mismatch of cultures. On top of that, the service delivery itself doesn’t fit into a neat box; instead, it spans multiple industries that provide home or mobile services to end customers.

The goal of service software is to enhance the service process, helping to complete the action – without interrupting it in any way. But this level of complexity means that many service providers find it difficult to coordinate their teams to use the technologies at their disposal.

For example, if an HVAC installation service provider can only build a technician’s work schedule based on available loads three weeks in advance and cannot update them by date, they cannot use Use your time effectively. Changes due to illness, sudden high-priority incidents, or any other day-to-day problems may arise. If the software can’t adapt, it’s worse than pen and paper. That is an obstacle.

Embrace the technique of containment to overcome complexity

Here’s why service providers need to consider The application contains. Gartner has guess that by 2023, 70% of global organizations will run more than two packaged applications – up from just 20% in 2019. The concept of containerization, in the simplest terms, is software that is packaged package, with all the backend processes, allowing it to be deployed at the discretion of the end user.

With containerization, service organizations can begin to introduce enormous levels of flexibility deeper down the value chain, whether this is reverse logistics or last mile, virtual reality (VR) or virtual reality. augmented reality (AR). The options are huge.

Going to the cloud or on the ground: Deployment agility at the core of containerization

Cloud-based solutions and containerization are substantive link. A cloud-first software product that enables service organizations to completely bypass the IT burden of managing maintenance, upgrades, licensing, and operations.

But a packaged product, a product that lives natively in the cloud, can easily be packaged and deployed on a home server with the same internals, the same APIs, and the same effect. . If your infrastructure requires it, then cloud solutions can meet those needs rather than dictate the terms of how you interact with the product.

Depending on the user, even the implementation of software as a service requires flexibility. Some service companies simply require, perhaps for legal reasons, that their solutions be managed on-site. Others have a managed cloud space of their own that they want to use.

Others are in position to move to the cloud. None of this (or any other applicable permutation) is wrong, and software that supports that flexibility will be key.

Containerization opens the door to increased agility and new technologies – enter Kubernetes

When a service organization has an integrated software architecture implemented in a way that is relevant to its business, it can begin to offer enormous levels of deeper flexibility. in the value chain. This could be for introducing a new business model, such as reverse logistics, or new engineering technologies, such as AR and VR, and for expert-to-expert or expert-to-expert collaboration. client.

Import Kubernetes.

Kubernetes is an open source technology that helps facilitate the packing. It’s a ‘must have’ for cloud computing, as it makes system configuration easier, increases reliability, enables faster software deployment, and improves the efficient use of computing resources. . According to a study from VMware, 95% of participants benefits realized from Kubernetes, including 56% who said they saw improved resource usage.

The software that powers Kubernetes can speed services companies to bring new features and capabilities to market and to customers. In turn, businesses themselves can quickly adapt to changes in the market and regulatory environment, even turning that agility into a competitive advantage that, from a service perspective, can only be achieved. Ten times better for the end user.

Peak demand or lull in business, your services will always be there

The benefits of containerization are clear – it’s a cross-functional, multi-benefit software approach that will only enhance service delivery. Kubernetes and containers are built to be highly scalable and can even be set up to scale services up and down in real time. As traffic to those servers increases or decreases, you can rest assured that your services will always be available to employees and customers – not limited by an increase in dependent demand. to market forces.

Raymond Jones is the SVP of cloud operations at IFS.