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Dubbed the most widely used container management tool in the enterprise, Kubernetes is a crucial platform for many DevOps organizations. It allows developers and operations engineers (DevOps) to develop and deploy applications at scale with great efficiency. However, an aspect that’s just as important as using the container management tool is managing user access to it. The good news is DevOps organizations can leverage Kubernetes LDAP support from JumpCloud® via LDAP-as-a-Service. Doing so enables your DevOps engineers to spend more time on high value tasks and less time on managing access to IT resources. Let’s take a look at how this is the case, starting with the time sinks associated with traditional user management options.
Managing User Access to Kubernetes
The Hassle with Traditional Methods
Typically, DevOps organizations leverage OpenLDAP™ infrastructure, manually manage engineer access, or use a combination of both to manage user access to Kubernetes. More than likely, you are well aware of the hassles that are common with either method. For example, while OpenLDAP is a great way to achieve a flexible directory service, it comes with its fair share of babysitting: you’re responsible for the configuration, maintenance, and management of the solution. Plus, OpenLDAP doesn’t integrate well with non-LDAP IT resources. So, while OpenLDAP may offer Kubernetes LDAP support, you’re likely putting in a decent amount of time into creating scripts or manually managing user access to tools like GitHub as well as cloud infrastructure. With manual methods like these, some DevOps organizations have reported that it can take up to a week to provision new hires to all of their necessary systems, apps, file storage, and networks. That’s a lot of time to just onboard a new employee. That’s also a lot of time that a new hire has to wait to gain access to everything they need to start working.
JumpCloud Eliminates the Hassle
Organizations that implement JumpCloud Directory-as-a-Service®, on the other hand, don’t have to waste time configuring, maintaining, and managing OpenLDAP infrastructure. Instead, DevOps engineers can off-load these responsibilities to the cloud LDAP platform. Further, because this Directory-as-a-Service solution serves as a core identity provider across an entire organization, IT admins and DevOps engineers can centralize user access to virtually all IT resources. JumpCloud enables authentication services for applications such as Kubernetes via LDAP, web applications such as GitHub via SAML, AWS® infrastructure via SSH keys, and more “as-a-Service”. As a result, security and control are increased while user management tasks like onboarding are reduced to minutes—empowering everyone with more time to Make Work Happen™.
Where to Go From Here
If you have questions related to Kubernetes LDAP support from JumpCloud, send us a note. We’ll gladly work with you and see what we can do to help. Also, consider viewing the video above, as it offers an in-depth look at how LDAP-as-a-Service works. Ready to get hands on? Sign up for a free account. You don’t need a credit card, all of our features are available, and your first ten users are free forever.
