Auto-Scaling a Defence Application across the Cloud Using Docker and Kubernetes

The Australian Defence Forces (ADF) including the army, navy and air force often share resources. This is the case for helicopter training where the resources are often people, e.g. instructors. Understanding the current and future needs of the helicopter pilot training continuum is challenging. New students are continually entering the Defence services as trainees/cadets; passing or failing exams at specialist flying schools; progressing through or leaving the Defence services and potentially becoming trained pilots or instructors that can subsequently train future students. This continuum has an associated optimisation challenge. The ATHENA platform has been developed as a strategic discrete event simulation, optimisation and analysis system for manpower planning with specific focus on addressing the needs and demands of this helicopter pilot training continuum for the ADF. ATHENA has been developed as a simulation platform running on a Cloud infrastructure. This paper introduces ATHENA and describes the way in which the platform leverages container technologies to auto-scale across the Cloud with focus on the Kubernetes orchestration technology.