The army that was too efficient
In the book „Team of Teams”, General Stanley McChrystal tells us how the American army, although extremely well organized, faced a paradox, namely, it was too effective for a world that was changing too quickly.
Its hierarchical, rigorous structure, with clear chains of command, was ideal for a linear conflict, but completely ineffective in the face of a decentralized, unpredictable and agile adversary.
A traditional IT infrastructure worked in a similar way before the advent of containers and orchestrators. And just like in the army, the solution is not to work more or faster, but differently.
From hierarchies to networks
In today’s world of modern IT infrastructures, Kubernetes is not just a technical tool, it is an organizational philosophy. Just as McChrystal understood that field teams needed autonomy and quick reaction, not approvals from the center, so microservices and containers need intelligent orchestration without centralized bottlenecks.
McChrystal mentions at one point in the book:
“In complex environments, resilience often counts for more than strength, and adaptability more than speed.”
Precisely at this point my favorite parallel appears: an orchestrated container system is not “more powerful” than a classic server, but it is certainly more adaptable, more resilient and more suitable to deal with unpredictable situations.
A lesson that also applies in business: The general talks about how a “shared consciousness” culture was created, in which all teams had access to real-time information and could make decisions quickly, without waiting for approvals from above.
The same happens in the work carried out at LifeinCloud, where we learned to work with customers in the same way. We don’t just sell “black boxes” or top-down solutions, but we build together, starting from the business needs collected from the field:
- Scalable cloud architectures
- Easy-to-manage containers
- Antifragile systems, not just robust
Kubernetes as an organizational philosophy
Self-healing, not just scaling
We use Kubernetes not just because it’s trendy, but because it actually works just like a network of autonomous teams, coordinated by common values and goals, not rigid rules.
In a Kubernetes architecture, if one node goes down, another takes over.
Basically, the system repairs itself, just like a trained team reacts instinctively without waiting for orders. Kubernetes is not just a container orchestrator, but a reflection of modern organizational thinking, consisting of less hierarchy, more autonomy, more resilience.
Control that enables, not restricts
Just as absolute control does not mean power, it means fragility, orchestration does not mean creating constraints, but rules that offer freedom.
Thus, we can build together what is called “team of services”, modern architectures, which learn, adapt and grow together with your business.
