Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform originally designed by Google. It automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of machines.
Key Features
- Container Orchestration - Manage containers across multiple hosts
- Auto-scaling - Automatically scale applications based on demand
- Service Discovery - Built-in service discovery and load balancing
- Rolling Updates - Zero-downtime deployments
- Self-healing - Automatically restart failed containers
Core Concepts
- Pods - Smallest deployable units (usually one container)
- Services - Stable network endpoints for pods
- Deployments - Manage replica sets and rolling updates
- Namespaces - Virtual clusters within a physical cluster
- ConfigMaps & Secrets - Configuration and sensitive data management
Common Use Cases
- Microservices - Deploy and manage microservice architectures
- CI/CD Pipelines - Automated deployment and scaling
- Multi-cloud - Run applications across different cloud providers
- DevOps - Infrastructure as code and GitOps workflows
- Legacy Modernization - Containerize existing applications
Getting Started
# Install kubectl (Kubernetes CLI)
brew install kubectl # macOS
# or download from https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/
# Connect to a cluster
kubectl config use-context my-cluster
# Deploy an application
kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx
kubectl expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer
# Check status
kubectl get pods
kubectl get services
Why Choose Kubernetes?
Kubernetes excels when you need:
- Scalability - Handle traffic spikes automatically
- Reliability - High availability and fault tolerance
- Portability - Run anywhere (cloud, on-premises, hybrid)
- Ecosystem - Rich ecosystem of tools and extensions
- Industry Standard - Widely adopted container orchestration
Kubernetes is essential for modern cloud-native application development and DevOps practices.