Kubernetes fundamentals

Many organizations still ask, "Do we need Kubernetes, or indeed any container orchestrator?" When we think about container management on a large scale, we need to think about several points, such as scaling, load balancing, life cycle management, continuous delivery, logging and monitoring, and more.

You might ask, "Aren't containers supposed to do all that?" The answer is that containers are only a low-level piece of the puzzle. The real benefits are gained through the tools that sit on top of the containers. At the end of the day, we need something to help us with orchestration.

Kubernetes is a Greek word, κυβερνήτης, which means "helmsman" or "captain of the ship." Keeping the maritime theme of Docker containers, Kubernetes is the captain of the ship. Kubernetes is often denoted as K8s, where 8 represents the eight letters between "K" and...