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Multi-Cluster

What is Multi-Cluster?

Multi-cluster is an architecture strategy for deploying a cloud native application on or across multiple Kubernetes clusters. Multi-cluster architectures improve availability, isolation, and scalability and can be useful in ensuring compliance with conflicting regulations as individual clusters can be adapted to comply with geographic or certification-specific regulations. In a multi-cluster application, individual development teams can deploy applications to isolated clusters and selectivly expose which services are available for testing and release.

There are two fundamental ways in which multi-cluster applications can be architected:

  • Replicated: each cluster runs a full copy of the application
  • Split-by-Service: the services of a single application or system are divided across multiple clusters

Impact on Today

Many organizations are today are deploying multiple clusters for the following benefits:

  • Improved operational readiness
  • Increased availability and performance
  • Isolation and multi-tenancy
  • Compliance
  • Eliminate vendor lock-in

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