What does Kubernetes (K8s) have to do with Standard Oil Company?

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 11:10:33 +0000 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 06:45:22 +0000

In the dynamics around the development and evolution of Kubernetes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes, I see the same pattern as in 1882 when Rockefeller used gift oil lamps to boost paraffin sales.

Though Standard Oil already monopolized the domestic market, it was always looking for new opportunities. In 1882, the company sent a merchant named William Herbert Libby to East Asia, where he was soon distributing pamphlets praising the safety of kerosene lamps—and the lamps themselves. Like some latter-day software developer passing out free laptops, Libby saw to it that eight million Mei Foo, or “good luck” kerosene lamps were either sold for a pittance or given away free, with millions more soon to follow.

“In many countries, we had to teach the people…to burn oil by making lamps for them;” Rockefeller wrote in his memoirs.

[1] http://kevinbaker.info/to-light-the-lamps-of-china/

more -> https://realtime.fyi/articles/nmoplus/what-does-kubernetes-have-to-do-with-standard-oil-company

#StandardOil #BigTech #GAFAM #Kubernetes #K8s #Hyperscaler #GAIA-X #GAIAX #CloudComputing #Microsoft #Google #Amazon #AmazonWebServices #StandardOilCompany #StandardOil #openSource

hEARt PhoniX

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 06:14:20 +0000 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 06:19:06 +0000

The comparison does not work in my experience.
What is Kubernetes? It is a tool to handle big and complex datacenter landacapes. Today these are usually some form of the cloud.
Tools like it have been around before (Puppet), but the more complex a situation gets, the less tools you have to chose from. Datacenters today need to spin up virtual machines within seconds, or remove them. Keep everything up to date. Apply SLA to everything based on purchased support plans.
This is what can be done with Kubernetes.
This is what the big players are offering. This is why Kubernetes is getting so much attention, it is a skill often requested by admins, and increasingly so.

Kubernetes is not targeted for the home consumer. It is a tool for complex IT landscapes. You can use it, sure. But it is not really the best tool if you want to manage 2 or 3 systems. The overhead may outweigh the benefits in that scenario. Just like it may be overhead to install libreoffice just to jot down a grocery list. Which can be done. But does it make sense?

use of (seemingly) free or cheap solutions/technologies creates certain costs and/or dependencies

neue medienordnung plus

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 07:14:09 +0000 zuletzt bearbeitet: Mon, 15 Nov 2021 03:21:54 +0000

In my statement, I did not imply in any word in which context the use of Kubernetes makes sense. Nor did I doubt that the use of Kubernetes in certain scenarios is beneficial for the user, for the company. Just as the use of kerosene lamps was undoubtedly beneficial for consumers, otherwise companies or consumers would not have used the tools.

What these examples have in common is that the use of (seemingly) free or cheap solutions/technologies creates certain costs and/or dependencies. And these costs, on the other hand, generate profits for Standard Oil or Big Tech companies https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech . For the companies that offer certain door-opening goods/technologies. The experts believe that technology dependencies can endanger our digital sovereignty and even democracy:

It is not the democratically legitimised federal government that decides whether we are dealing with a centralised app or a decentralised one, but American IT corporations. In this case, I don't think it's that serious, because both models have advantages and disadvantages, but abstracting from this individual case, one can already ask oneself whether these are really the instances that should make such decisions.

(german) --> Privacy expert on the Corona app: "Google and Apple have shown the federal government the way", 27.04.2020 - https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/datenschutzexperte-zur-corona-app-google-und-apple-haben-100.html

More (german) --> https://realtime.fyi/articles/panicroomplus/willkommen-in-der-matrix-wie-die-techgiganten-die-menschheit-vereinnahmen

Uppdate 15.11.2021
URL to the source deutschlandfunk.de corrected

#DoorOpening #DoorOpeningTechnology #DoorOpeningTechnologes #sovereignty #DigitalSovereignty