One of the benefits of being a Manning author is that we get access to the Manning book catalog, including those currently in the MEAP early access programme (MEAP). The Road to Kubernetes title was bought to my attention. The book has just become available as a MEAP title; this means that the book has just completed its first major review milestone, and about a third of the book has been written. It does mean our review only covers the first 3 chapters at the moment.

What got my attention with this book is that unlike other titles about Kubernetes \9of which there are a number of great titles in the Manning portfolio already) is that it has adopted a different approach.

Most books focus on one technology and deep dive into that technology and dig into the more advanced features of that specific area. For an experienced IT person, that is great. But, when it comes to Kubernetes, if you’re skills are largely just focused on largely coding with languages like Java, Python, and JavaScript – not unusual for a graduate or junior developers it means the amount of reading and learning curve to get to grips with developing and deploying containers to Kubernetes is considerable. Here, Justin has taken the approach of assuming basic development skills and then taking you on a journey of focussing on the basics of containers, deployment automation, and then Kubernetes with just enough to be able to deploy a simple solution using good practices. This makes the learning path to gaining the skills that allow you to work within a team and building containerized solutions a lot easier.

I imagine once the book is complete and you’ve followed it through, you’ll be in a position to focus on learning new, more advanced aspects of containers and Kubernetes in a focused manner to meet the needs of a day-to-day job.

Having coached and mentored junior developers and graduates, this is a book I’d recommend to help them along, and if my experience with the Manning book development process is anything to go by, as Justin goes through the major milestones, this book will go from good to great.

My only word of caution is that this book will take the reader on a journey of building and deploying microservices to Kubernetes. Don’t be fooled into thinking Kubernetes and microservices are easy – there is a lot of technologies that I don’t think the book will go into (but then not all developers need to understand details such the differences in network fabric (Calico, Flannel) or container engines cri-o, Docker Engine, deploying support tooling for things like observability). Without good design and, depending upon your solution, a handle in a variety of more specialized areas, it is still possible to get yourself into a mess, even for the most experienced of teams.