The foundation of an effective container environment is the right Kubernetes distribution that will be the foundation of a stable and reliable microservice platform. RKE2 Rancher Kubernetes is a distribution provided by SUSE. Below we present the 14 most important facts about why it is worth using RKE2 as the basic distribution for building Kubernetes clusters.

1. RKE2 is a distribution with all functionalities available in the open-source model and can be used commercially free of charge.
2. For RKE2, you can additionally purchase Enterprise 24x7 support from its  manufacturer (SUSE). You can use a fully functional product and later decide to purchase additional support.
3. RKE2 is CNCF-certified and fully  compatible Kubernetes distribution.
4. RKE2 provides a quick and efficient installation process of a Kubernetes cluster with default parameterization of security mechanisms, which is much more user-friendly than installing a standard Kubernetes distribution.
5. After installation, RKE2 meets the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) security standards of the US government and all Kubernetes security standards that allow you to meet the CIS Kubernetes Benchmark recommendations. It is also the only Kubernetes distribution approved by DISA (Defence Information Systems Agency).
6. The RKE2 distribution is scanned during the development process for security threats using Trivy.
7. RKE2 is based on containerd runtime, which is an open-source standard alternative to the commercial docker runtime, thus reducing TCO. You do not have to pay for commercial use of docker because it will not be needed for your RKE2 Kubernetes cluster to work.
8. RKE2 used with Rancher provides an automatic version upgrade process of RKE2 cluster directly from a Rancher console along with the rollback procedure.
9. RKE2 is not dependent on operating with a specific vendor's operating system or a product of a specific manufacturer, it is an open distribution. Thanks to this, it allows you to avoid vendor-locking while building Kubernetes platforms.
10. RKE2 provides an automatic cluster configuration backup procedure and a quick procedure for restoring the cluster state from a backup.
11. RKE2 can work with one of the selected CNI: Canal (default), Callico, Cilium.
12. Default RKE2 cluster installation includes nginx-ingress and coredns deployment.
13. RKE2 can be installed in an air-gap environment isolated from Internet access with the preparation process for downloading all binary resources necessary for installation from local resources.
14. RKE2 supports worker nodes running in Windows environments. So you can run and manage containerized services based on the Windows system.

Sorigo - as the Emerald Partner of SUSE in the Kubernetes area, is a reliable implementation partner for clients interested in implementing SUSE products in their organization. We support our clients both in the installation and configuration of these products as well as further evolutionary development of Kubernetes platforms.  On the K8S clusters we implement the DevOps and GitOps processes, deploy components of the microservice architecture and implement & deploy microservices.