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Arun Shaji
Arun Shaji

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Kubernetes from scratch

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Introduction to Kubernetes: What is Kubernetes and Why Do We Need It?

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first part of my Kubernetes tutorial series. If you're new to Kubernetes or just curious about what it does and why it’s important, you’re in the right place! In this series, I’ll take you through the basics of Kubernetes, step by step, and explain it as if you're hearing about it for the first time.

What is Kubernetes?

At its core, Kubernetes is an open-source platform designed to manage containerized applications. It helps you deploy, scale, and manage your applications in a highly automated way.

Think of Kubernetes as a manager for containers — it helps you run, scale, and maintain your applications consistently across different environments, from local machines to the cloud.

Why Do We Need Kubernetes?

Now, you might be wondering, why do we need Kubernetes in the first place?

In today's world, applications have become more complex and distributed. We are no longer just running applications on one big machine or server; instead, we split them into smaller pieces, called microservices, which are often packaged into containers (like Docker).

But, managing these containers can quickly become a headache, especially when you need to:

  • Scale your application up or down based on demand.
  • Ensure high availability so that your app stays up, even if something fails.
  • Automatically roll out new updates without downtime.
  • Monitor and heal unhealthy parts of your application.

This is where Kubernetes comes in. It provides solutions to all of these problems by automating deployment, scaling, and operations of your containers. Essentially, Kubernetes acts as an orchestrator that manages how and where your containers run, making your life as a developer or operations engineer much easier.


What to Expect Next

In the next post, we’ll dive deeper into Kubernetes terminology and its architecture. We’ll learn about Pods, Nodes, Clusters, and other important components that form the backbone of Kubernetes. Stay tuned!

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