What Is Kubernetes Used For? A DevOps Guide

Containers have revolutionized software development, but managing them effectively requires robust orchestration. This is where Kubernetes comes in. But what is Kubernetes used for in practice?

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of Kubernetes, explaining its core components, architecture, and how it simplifies container management. We'll also delve into the key benefits of adopting Kubernetes. Finally, we'll address potential challenges with Kubernetes and explore how platforms like Plural simplify this.

Key Takeaways

• Kubernetes automates complex deployments: Streamlining the management of containerized applications, Kubernetes handles scaling, networking, and resource allocation, freeing developers to focus on building and deploying code.
• The Kubernetes ecosystem extends core functionality: Tools like Helm, Prometheus, and Istio enhance deployments by simplifying package management, monitoring, and inter-service communication for improved efficiency and observability.
• Simplify Kubernetes complexity with Plural: While powerful, Kubernetes has a learning curve and added challenges. Plural is designed to help teams move beyond these limitations and confidently manage Kubernetes at scale.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes (often shortened to K8s) is open-source production-grade container orchestration software for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Instead of manually managing individual containers and servers, Kubernetes provides a platform to orchestrate these resources efficiently. This allows developers to focus on building and deploying applications, rather than infrastructure management.

It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.

Core Components and Architecture

Kubernetes follows a master-worker architecture. The master component, often called the control plane, is the central hub responsible for managing the overall cluster state. It makes decisions about scheduling, deployments, and scaling. The worker components are the individual nodes that run the containers. These nodes communicate with the master to receive instructions and report their status. This separation of concerns allows for a highly scalable and resilient system.

Understanding Pods, Nodes, and Clusters

The basic building blocks of Kubernetes are Pods, Nodes, and Clusters.

• Pods are the smallest deployable units in Kubernetes, encapsulating one or more containers, along with shared storage and network resources. Containers within a pod are tightly coupled and share the same lifecycle.
• Nodes are the physical or virtual machines where pods run, each equipped with the necessary runtime environment to execute containers.
• Cluster is a collection of nodes working together, managed by the Kubernetes control plane. This clustering provides high availability and fault tolerance. If one node fails, Kubernetes automatically reschedules the pods to other healthy nodes, ensuring applications remain available even during infrastructure failures.

How Do Teams Use Kubernetes?

Teams use Kubernetes to simplify complex tasks and improve the efficiency of their workflows.

Orchestrating Containers at Scale

Kubernetes excels at orchestrating containers, packaging applications and their dependencies into portable units for consistent deployment across diverse environments. This allows teams to manage a large number of containers, automating deployment, scaling, and networking. Kubernetes provides a centralized platform to manage all containers, eliminating the need for manual configuration. This is particularly valuable for applications with complex dependencies or microservice architectures.

Managing Microservices

Microservices architectures, composed of small, independent services, are well-suited for Kubernetes. The platform simplifies deploying and managing these services, enabling teams to scale each component independently. Kubernetes also handles service discovery and inter-service communication, reducing the operational overhead of managing complex distributed applications.

Implementing CI/CD

Kubernetes streamlines CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated deployments and releases. Integrating Kubernetes into CI/CD workflows automates the process of building, testing, and deploying applications. This accelerates release cycles and improves development velocity while reducing manual errors and ensuring consistent deployments across environments.

Developing Cloud-Native Applications

Kubernetes is ideal for developing cloud-native applications, simplifying management, and scaling in the cloud. Features like automated scaling, self-healing, and service discovery are designed for the dynamic nature of cloud deployments. This allows teams to build resilient, scalable applications that adapt to changing demands and fully utilize cloud infrastructure.

Why Use Kubernetes?

Kubernetes has become the industry standard for container orchestration, offering robust features that simplify deploying, scaling, and managing applications.

Scale and Optimize Resources

Kubernetes automatically scales your application by adjusting the number of containers based on real-time demand. This ensures optimal resource utilization and performance, preventing over-provisioning and minimizing costs. If traffic spikes, Kubernetes seamlessly spins up additional containers; during periods of low activity, it scales down, freeing up resources. This dynamic scaling is crucial for handling fluctuating workloads and optimizing cloud spending.

Automate Management and Self-Healing

Kubernetes automates numerous management tasks, simplifying operations and enhancing application reliability. A crucial feature is self-healing: if a container crashes, Kubernetes automatically restarts it. This automated recovery minimizes downtime and ensures continuous service availability. Kubernetes also handles rolling updates and rollbacks, allowing you to deploy new versions of your application without interrupting service.

Load Balancing and Service Discovery

Kubernetes simplifies service discovery and load balancing within your application. It provides a built-in mechanism for services to locate and communicate with each other, regardless of their location within the cluster. Kubernetes distributes incoming traffic evenly across available containers, ensuring no single instance is overloaded. This efficient traffic management enhances performance and resilience.

Ensure Portability Across Cloud Providers

Kubernetes offers unparalleled portability, enabling you to run your applications on-premises, in public clouds like AWS, Azure, and GCP, or in hybrid environments. This flexibility avoids vendor lock-in and allows you to choose the infrastructure that best suits your needs. You can seamlessly migrate workloads between different environments without significant code changes, simplifying disaster recovery and multi-cloud deployments.

In this article by Plural, discover practical strategies, tools, and best practices to streamline Kubernetes operations across various cloud platforms.

How Can You Deploy Kubernetes?

Kubernetes offers remarkable flexibility in deployment, supporting various environments to meet diverse organizational needs. This adaptability is key to its widespread use. Let's explore the main deployment options: on-premises, cloud, and multi-cloud.

On-Premises, Cloud, and Hybrid Setups

Kubernetes runs on virtually any infrastructure, from physical or virtual machines in your own data center (on-premises) to the infrastructure of major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. This lets you choose the environment that best suits your business needs and current infrastructure. You can also opt for a hybrid approach, combining on-premises and cloud deployments. Kubernetes is designed to work across these various environments, simplifying management no matter where your workloads reside. For example, platforms like Plural simplify hybrid cloud management with a unified platform.

Multi-Cloud Strategies

While Kubernetes streamlines managing containerized applications, deploying across multiple cloud providers or combining on-premises and cloud environments introduces complexities. Maintaining consistency across these environments requires careful planning and the right tools. Platforms like Plural simplify multi-cloud Kubernetes management by offering a unified platform to deploy and manage applications across your entire fleet, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.

Exploring the Kubernetes Ecosystem

Kubernetes provides a robust foundation for container orchestration, but a rich ecosystem of tools and extensions enhances its capabilities and simplifies management.

Essential Tools: Helm, Prometheus, and Istio

Several tools have become indispensable for managing and monitoring Kubernetes deployments:

• Helm: Helm acts as a package manager for Kubernetes, streamlining the process of defining, installing, and upgrading applications. Helm Charts package pre-configured Kubernetes resources, simplifying complex deployments and ensuring consistency across environments. This reduces errors and saves you time.
• Prometheus: Prometheus is a leading open-source monitoring and alerting system built for reliability and scale. It gathers metrics from specified targets, allowing you to track your applications' and infrastructure's performance and health. Prometheus supports sophisticated alerting rules, notifying you of potential issues.
• Istio: Istio provides a service mesh for managing inter-service communication. Istio offers powerful traffic management, security, and observability features, simplifying the complexities of microservice architectures deployed on Kubernetes. This enables advanced deployment strategies like canary releases.

Extend Kubernetes with Custom Resources

One of Kubernetes' most powerful features is its extensibility through Custom Resources. These extend the Kubernetes API, enabling you to create and manage application-specific objects.

Custom Resources allow you to tailor Kubernetes to your specific needs. You can manage application configurations, define new operational behaviors, and integrate with other systems. This flexibility empowers teams to build and deploy applications efficiently. By leveraging Custom Resources, your application-specific objects become first-class citizens within the Kubernetes ecosystem.

What Challenges Should You Consider?

While Kubernetes offers significant advantages, it also presents challenges. Understanding these hurdles will help you prepare for a successful implementation.

Complexity and Learning Curve

Kubernetes is a complex system with many moving parts. Teams new to container orchestration face a steep learning curve. This complexity stems from the distributed nature of Kubernetes environments, comprising numerous interconnected components. Successfully managing these components requires specialized knowledge across several domains, including networking, storage, and security. While Kubernetes simplifies complex deployments with its declarative model, challenges like setup, resource management, and monitoring remain. Teams must invest time and resources in training and development to effectively manage Kubernetes.

Security and Compliance

Security is paramount when running applications in Kubernetes. As your cluster grows, your attack surface expands, increasing your vulnerability to security threats. Securing mission-critical clusters and applications running in production demands robust compliance. Consider solutions that offer enhanced security features, such as role-based access control (RBAC) and network policies, to mitigate risks and ensure the integrity of your Kubernetes deployments. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments are essential for maintaining a secure and compliant Kubernetes environment.

Both security and compliance are essential for the success and protection of Kubernetes deployments. Discover top tips by Plural for Kubernetes security and compliance.

Simplify Kubernetes Complexity with Plural

Managing K8s environments at scale is a significant challenge. From navigating heterogeneous environments to addressing a global skills gap in Kubernetes expertise, organizations face complexity that can slow innovation and disrupt operations.

Plural helps teams run multi-cluster, complex K8s environments at scale by combining an intuitive, single pane of glass interface with advanced AI troubleshooting capabilities that leverage a unique vantage point into your Kubernetes environment.

Monitor your entire environment from a single dashboard

Stay on top of your environment's clusters, workloads, and resources in one place. Gain real-time visibility into cluster health, status, and resource usage. Maintain control and consistency across clusters.

Manage and de-risk complex deployments and upgrades

Reduce the risks associated with deployments, maintenance, and upgrades by combining automated workflows with the flexibility of built-in Helm charts.

Solve complex operations issues with the help of AI

Identify, understand, and resolve complex issues across your environment with AI-powered diagnostics. Save valuable time spent on root cause analysis and reduce the need for manual intervention.

Conquer heterogeneous environments with confidence

Managing K8s across on-premises, multi-cloud, and hybrid setups introduces challenges. Plural bridges the gap, providing the tools to standardize and scale across environments.

Effortlessly simplify the complexities of Kubernetes management with a platform designed to enhance efficiency, reduce operational challenges, and empower your teams. Visit us at Plural.sh or schedule a demo to see it in action.

Related Articles

• Deep Dive into Kubernetes Components
• Kubernetes Mastery: DevOps Essential Guide
• Kubernetes Management: A Comprehensive Guide for 2025
• Kubernetes Pods: Practical Insights and Best Practices
• Mastering Cloud Native DevOps with Kubernetes

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main benefits of using Kubernetes? Kubernetes simplifies the deployment, scaling, and management of applications, automating many tasks that would otherwise require manual intervention. This leads to improved resource utilization, reduced operational overhead, and faster development cycles. Key benefits include automated scaling and self-healing, simplified service discovery and load balancing, and portability across different environments.

How does Kubernetes handle storage for applications? Kubernetes uses Persistent Volumes to manage storage. These abstract the underlying storage infrastructure, allowing you to define how storage is provisioned and accessed independently of the application's lifecycle. This ensures data persistence even if pods are rescheduled or terminated.

What are some common tools used with Kubernetes? Helm simplifies application deployment and management by acting as a package manager. Prometheus provides robust monitoring and alerting, while Istio manages inter-service communication in microservice architectures. These tools enhance Kubernetes' capabilities and streamline operations.

Is Kubernetes only for microservices? While Kubernetes is well-suited for microservices, it's also effective for managing other architectures, including serverless computing and containerized monolithic applications. Its flexibility allows organizations to leverage Kubernetes regardless of their current architectural approach.

How can I start learning and using Kubernetes? Begin with a local Kubernetes environment using tools like Minikube or Kind. Explore the official Kubernetes documentation and numerous online tutorials. For structured learning and certification, consider the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam.