The Kubernetes ecosystem, while powerful, is a sprawling landscape of tools. As organizations scale their deployments, ensuring compliance and security becomes paramount. But how do you effectively track and report on your Kubernetes policies and scanners across diverse tools? 

Enter OpenReports (https://openreports.io/), a new but incredibly promising project aiming to standardize reporting, drawing inspiration from the success of OpenTelemetry.

OpenReports is designed to capture, correlate, and export evaluation results for any Kubernetes tool, such as policy engines, scanners, or any controller that wishes to produce reports.  This is the core vision of OpenReports. The project seeks to provide a unified API and set of tools for producing and consuming reports in a standardized, vendor-neutral format.

The OpenReports API was initially developed by the Kubernetes Policy Working Group and has now been spun out into its own project. 

The Challenge: Reporting Fragmentation

Currently, reporting in Kubernetes is a fragmented affair. Each policy engine, scanner, or controller often has its own reporting mechanism, and integration points. This creates significant challenges for:

OpenReports: A Unified Approach

OpenReports aims to address these challenges by providing:

What OpenReports Provides

The OpenReports project provides a Kubernetes Custom Resource Definition (CRD) and several tools to manage reports:

Report Producers and Consumers 

While OpenReports is a new project, the API has been maintained for several years by the Kubernetes Policy Working Group, and several producers and consumers exist. Here is the current list:

Report Producers:

Report Consumers:

Why OpenReports Makes Sense

The comparison to OpenTelemetry is apt. Just as OpenTelemetry standardized observability signals (traces, metrics, logs), OpenReports aims to standardize policy reporting. This brings several key advantages:

The Future of Kubernetes Compliance

OpenReports has the potential to revolutionize Kubernetes compliance by providing a unified and standardized approach to policy reporting. By simplifying the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on policy and controller evaluations, OpenReports will empower organizations to build more secure and compliant Kubernetes environments.

As the Kubernetes ecosystem continues to evolve, projects like OpenReports are crucial for ensuring that security and compliance remain top priorities. If you are passionate about Kubernetes policy management and reporting, consider contributing to this exciting project. The future of Kubernetes compliance may very well depend on it.

Get Involved:

Stay tuned for more updates on OpenReports as it progresses towards its goal of standardizing Kubernetes policy reporting.