What is Kubernetes?
A short, plain-English definition of Kubernetes: what it does, where it came from, and why people actually run it.
Sources
The short definition
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management [Source 1]. You'll often see it written as K8s, which is just "K" plus the eight letters between K and S [Source 1].
If you've ever run a handful of Docker containers and thought "this would get painful at a hundred," Kubernetes is the answer people reached for.
Where it came from
Google originally designed Kubernetes [Source 1]. The project is now maintained by a worldwide community of contributors, and the trademark is held by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation [Source 1]. So while it has Google DNA, no single company owns it today.
What it actually does
At its core, Kubernetes automates the management of computerized services [Source 3]. In practice, that means:
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