Kubernetes is a popular open-source platform for the orchestration of containers —that is, management of the applications that are build-out of multiple, large, and self-contained runtimes. According to a survey by Redmonk, Kubernetes usage in Fortune 100 companies’s already at 54%, and with Kubernetes being adopted at such a large scale, it is now de facto standard for container orchestration. This has brought disruptions because it is good news for application developers and software vendors to bring true portability.
As per Kubernetes official website, “Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation.”
Kubernetes was developed originally by Google in 2014. It was built upon a decade and a half of the experience that Google has with running production workloads at scale, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community. It can also facilitate the framework to run distributed systems resiliently.
In Greek, Kubernetes means “captain“. It does complete justification with the name the management within the platform simplifies the complications of the user. Auto-scaling, load management and much more than only efficient.
Containers are the best way to bundle and deploy your applications. But how do you manage the containers that run the applications in a production environment and there is a risk of downtime, always. This is where Kubernetes comes in the picture. You can take care of your scaling requirements, failover, deployment patterns, and more by leveraging Kubernetes.
1. Containers
Kubernetes uses containers as the building block. Containers divide the application into small parts defined in layers of individual containers and this simplifies the complex multi-dimensional assembling of distributed applications.
2. Consistency
There is no more discrimination in running the developed application it treats every cloud and laptop equally. As a user can run it anywhere without facing any severe changes. This consistency can be regarded as the greatest benefit of Kubernetes.
3. Auto-scaling
The management capabilities of Kubernetes are remarkable. It removes out non-working containers, cures the problems of containers and even replaces if required. So, it’s not a burden for the user to go through it again and again.
4. Scheduling
It gives us a schedule for the management of load on applications and computing processes. This basically makes the working and handling easier for the user who suffers from multiple problems with application designing.
5. Base
The independent base for an application on any operating environment seems a clear way with PaaS.
6. Service discovery
Kubernetes can expose containers using the DNS name or using their own IP address.
7. Load Balancing
If traffic to a container is at the peak, Kubernetes is able to balance the load and distribute the network traffic so that the deployment is stable.
8. Storage Orchestration
Kubernetes allows you to automatically mount a chosen storage system, such as local storage, public cloud providers, and more.
9. Automated container provisioning
You can automate Kubernetes to create new containers for your deployment, remove existing containers and adopt all their resources to the new container.
10. Secrets and configuration management
With the help of Kubernetes, you can store and manage confidential information, such as passwords, OAuth (Open Authorization) tokens, and SSH (Secure Shell) keys. You don’t need to rebuild container images to deploy and update secrets and application configuration without exposing secrets in your stack configuration.
11. Automated bin packing
Bin packing refers to items of different volumes packed into a finite number of bins or containers each of volume V in a way that minimizes the number of bins used. Kubernetes permits you to specify how much CPU and RAM each container needs. When containers have resource requests specified, Kubernetes can manage the resources for containers with more efficiency.
Kuberenetes can solve almost any complexity that containers bring with it. From a development and production perspective, this open-source project has revolutionized how everyone now handles containers.
You can subscribe to our blog for more up-to-date information on Kubernetes and other cloud-related topics here.