#87 Beyond Containers: WebAssembly in Kubernetes

📍 Recorded during SRE Day in Amsterdam

In this episode of the Dutch Kubernetes Podcast, Ronald Kers (CNCF Ambassador) and Jan Stomphorst (Solutions Architect at ACC ICT) sit down with Deepu K Sasidharan (Co-chair of JHipster) to explore a groundbreaking topic: running Kubernetes without traditional containers using WebAssembly (Wasm).

🔹 What is WebAssembly, and why should you care?
Originally designed for running high-performance applications in web browsers, WebAssembly is now making its way into cloud-native computing and Kubernetes environments.

Deepu explains how WebAssembly differs from containers and why it could be a game-changer for serverless computing and edge workloads.

🔹 Why WebAssembly in Kubernetes?
✅ Faster startup times – Near-instant execution compared to container cold starts.
✅ Lightweight execution – No OS dependencies, making it more efficient.
✅ Better security & isolation – Sandboxed execution with minimal attack surface.
✅ True serverless? – Potential for workloads that truly start and stop instantly.

🔹 Challenges & Limitations
🔸 Not every application can be easily ported – Multi-threading and TLS support are still evolving.
🔸 Standardization is still in progress – Different WebAssembly runtimes (e.g., WASI, Spin, WasmEdge) implement features differently.
🔸 Limited ecosystem adoption – Kubernetes and cloud providers are still building support for WebAssembly workloads.

🔮 What’s Next?
As WebAssembly adoption grows, could it replace containers for certain workloads? Major cloud providers, Kubernetes distributions, and companies like Docker are investing in Wasm, but there’s still a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream alternative.

🚀 Is WebAssembly the next big thing in cloud-native computing, or just another niche technology? Listen to find out!

🎧 Available now on your favorite podcast platform!

#Kubernetes #WebAssembly #WASM #Serverless #CloudNative #DevOps #Containers #CNCF

ACC ICT Specialist in IT-CONTINUÏTEIT
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