Your own Kubernetes Operator: Not Only in Go

In Kubernetes, operators allow the API to be extended to your heart's content. If one task requires too much YAML, it's easy to create an operator to take care of the repetitive cruft and only require a minimum amount of YAML.

On the other hand, since its beginnings, the Go language has been advertised as closer to the hardware, and is now ubiquitous in low-level programming. Kubernetes has been rewritten from Java to Go, and its whole ecosystem revolves around Go. For that reason, it's only natural that Kubernetes provides a Go-based framework to create your own operator. While it makes sense, it requires organizations willing to go down this road to have Go developers and/or train their teams in Go. While perfectly acceptable, this is not the only option. In fact, since Kubernetes is based on REST, why settle for Go and not use your favorite language?

In this talk, I'll describe what an operator is, how they work, how to design one, and finally demo a Java-based operator that is as good as a Go one.