Plate Recognizer, the leader in Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is proud to announce that its vehicle plate recognition on-premise ANPR SDK software now runs on Kubernetes.
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source container system to simplify deployment, management and scaling of business applications. The open-source orchestration software allows technology teams to deploy and manage the microservices that make up a business’ technology stack. Kubernetes, also known as k8s, allows for portability and scalability when deploying applications across on-premise or cloud environments. It takes less time to manage, reduces downtime, reduces IT costs and improves applications efficiency and speed.
How is Kubernetes Used?
Kubernetes is used in conjunction with containers to bundle and run your applications. In a production environment, you always have to manage the containers that run the applications and ensure that there is no downtime. With Kubernetes, if a container goes down, another container automatically starts to minimize, if not eliminate, downtime.
Also, with the modern web services, users expect applications to be available almost all through the day, and developers expect to deploy new versions of those applications several times a day. Containerization helps package software to serve these goals, enabling applications to be released and updated in an easy and fast way without downtime. With Kubernetes, you can be assured that your containerized applications run where and when you want to minimize business disruption.
Why is Kubernetes Important?
Kubernetes has become the standard orchestration platform for containers. All the major cloud providers support it, making it the logical choice for companies looking to move more applications to the cloud.
Kubernetes has the following capabilities which makes it amazing:
- Has a consistent environment across development, testing, and production.
- Runs the same way on a laptop as it does in the cloud.
- Allows for storage and management of sensitive information, such as passwords, OAuth tokens, and SSH keys.
- Is built to be used anywhere so you can deploy to public, private, and even hybrid clouds. This way, you can reach users wherever they are with Kubernetes.
- Ensures that requests are sent to the appropriate containers with built-in load balancers. This lets you balance resources relative to high traffic and outages.
- Enable users and developers to test the new deployment in production in parallel with the previous version without downtime. This concept of Canary deployments on Kubernetes can be a huge time and money saver for organizations.
What Types of Companies Use Kubernetes?
Over 1000 companies use Kubernetes in their tech stacks, including Google, Slack, Shopify, Stackshare, Reddit, The New York Times, AppDirect, Spotify, and Adidas.
Companies such as Github serve a lot of web and API requests via k8s clusters. Companies such as Pinterest that do have high number of active users and traffic use Kubernetes for fast dissemination of information. Companies such as Pokemon Go that have an increasing user base and traffic also use Kubernetes to scale up and accommodate massive influx of traffic.
ANPR on Kubernetes: Why is it Important?
Kubernetes is important in the ANPR system as it is used as it is the ideal platform for hosting cloud-native applications that require rapid scaling and real-time data streaming. Also, Kubernetes clusters can span hosts across public, private (on-premise), or hybrid cloud infrastructures, letting you effortlessly move workloads or data where necessary.
Here are some license plate recognition use-cases that are well-suited for Kubernetes:
- High variation in ANPR volume. If the number of lookups or cameras for number plate recognition tend to go up and down often in a certain period, then Kubernetes can be a great help. Basically, Kubernetes can make it super-simple to scale your ANPR servers to accommodate the load.
- Fast deployment. Companies looking to quickly deploy and continuously improve their software applications with ANPR can use Kubernetes to minimize application downtime.
- Continuous testing. The Canary deployment feature of Kubernetes can be a great benefit for companies who need to rapidly move their tech stack from development to testing to production.
Plate Recognizer ANPR on Kubernetes
We recognize that ANPR is mission-critical for organizations of different sizes and verticals. To that end, Plate Recognizer ANPR SDK now fully supports Kubernetes!
With the ANPR SDK, you are in full control. Vehicle license plate data will be collected and stored in your location. This means you do not need to send vehicle images over the Internet.
With our Kubernetes on ANPR SDK, you get to determine how long you want to store the decoded license plates and what you want to do with that data. You also get to protect the license plate data under the same security framework you use to safeguard your other corporate data assets.