Summary

Given that open source Kubernetes or K8s involves a lot of setup and upkeep, we deep-dived into Google Kubernetes Engine or GKE, a GCP compute Service that runs containerized applications. The Kubernetes concepts learned in Chapter 7, Understanding Kubernetes Essentials to Deploy Containerized Applications, apply to GKE. We additionally explored GKE core features such as GKE node pools, GKE cluster configurations, autoscaling, and GKE's ability to integrate with other GCP services across networking and operations. The next chapter focuses on security-specific features related to the Google Kubernetes Engine, with the goal of hardening a cluster's security.