KUBERNETES: WHAT TO KNOW

Kubernetes (also known as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It helps coordinate large container clusters across machine infrastructure to streamline container operations.

Containers package code together with dependencies and configuration into a lightweight, portable software unit for applications. They allow flexible and efficient deployment of applications across IT infrastructures. But managing tons of containers across server clusters brings immense complexity. That is where Kubernetes comes in.

It automates many of the manual processes involved in deploying and scaling containerized applications and microservices. The technology provides a layer of abstraction and services to containerize applications across clusters without needing to manually manage individual container lifecycles.

Some core capabilities Kubernetes offers include:

– Automatic container deployment and replication based on specified parameters
– Load balancing and traffic routing between containers
– Flexible resource scaling up additional containers to meet demand
– Health monitoring and self-healing capacities for faulty containers
– Automated rollouts and rollbacks for updates and fixes
– Storage orchestration, configuration and data management

For example, developers can specify desired container count or hardware resource allotments. Kubernetes then handles deploying the containers accordingly across available systems for maximum efficiency. It also monitors resource usage and performance. As demand grows or shrinks, Kubernetes instantly spins up more containers or shuts them down to autonomously meet specified availability targets.

The platform offers tremendous advantages like increased speed of development and deployment, improved infrastructure efficiency, easier portability across environments, reduced operational burden and complexity, greater resilience to errors, and centralized visibility into containerized applications and infrastructure health.

As microservices architectures utilizing containers continue gaining popularity, Kubernetes has emerged as the de facto open standard for container orchestration and cluster management. It helps businesses realize improved agility, reliability and efficiency running container workloads across private data centers and public clouds. Leading service providers natively support the tech today while its flexibility facilitates easier migration between environments. As more applications get built and delivered using containers, Kubernetes promises to underpin tomorrow’s cloud-native, service-oriented architectures.