1. Istio

After Kubernetes,Istio is the most popular cloud-native technology. It is a service mesh that securely connects multiple microservices of an application. Think of Istio as an internal and external load balancer with a policy-driven firewall with support for comprehensive metrics. The reason why developers and operators love Istio is the non-intrusive deployment pattern. Almost any Kubernetes service can be seamlessly integrated with Istio without explicit code or configuration changes.

Google recently announced a managed Istio service on GCP.  Apart from Google, IBM, Pivotal, Red Hat, Tigera and Weaveworks are the active contributors and supporters of the project.

Istio presents an excellent opportunity for ISVs to deliver custom solutions and tools to enterprises. This project is bound to become one of the core building blocks of cloud-native platforms. I expect every managed Kubernetes service to have a hosted Istio service.

2. Prometheus

Prometheus is a cloud-native monitoring tool for workloads deployed on Kubernetes. It plugs a critical gap that exists in the cloud-native world through comprehensive metrics and rich dashboards.

3. Helm

If Kubernetes is the new OS, Helm is the application installer. Designed on the lines of Debian packages and Red Hat Linux RPMs, Helm brings the ease and power of deploying cloud-native workloads with a single command.

4. Spinnaker

One of the promises of cloud-native technology is the rapid delivery of software. Spinnaker, an open source project initially built at Netflix delivers that promise. It is a release management tool that adds velocity to deploying cloud-native applications.

5. Kubeless

Event-driven computing is becoming an integral part of modern application architecture. Functions as a Service (FaaS) is one of the delivery models of serverless computing which complements containers through event-based invocation. Modern applications will have services packaged as containers and functions running within the same environment.