A practical checklist for container orchestration

This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. Run through this the next time container orchestration comes up.

The bill is a design document: it tells you exactly what your architecture actually does. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

The checklist

• Orchestration solves real problems and creates new ones
• Most small teams need far less of it than they deploy
• Understand what breaks before you depend on it
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

What it costs to ignore

Orchestration solves real problems and creates new ones. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

What this looks like day to day

Cloud work rewards teams who automate early and punishes teams who click through consoles. Three things worth confirming about container orchestration before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Orchestration solves real problems and creates new ones — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Pick the one that would hurt most if it failed, and start there.