Kubernetes is often described as a container orchestration platform. In order to understand what exactly that means, it helps to revisit the purpose of containers, what's missing, and how Kubernetes fills that gap.
Advantages:
Portability and flexibility
Kubernetes works with virtually any type of container runtime. (A runtime is the program that actually runs containers. There are a few different options on the market today.) In addition, Kubernetes can work with virtually any type of underlying infrastructure -- whether it is a public cloud, a private cloud, or an on-premises server -- so long as the host operating system is some version of Linux or Windows (2016 or newer).
Multi-cloud capability
Due in part to its portability, Kubernetes can host workloads running on a single cloud as well as workloads that are spread across multiple clouds. In addition, Kubernetes can easily scale its environment from one cloud to another.
These features mean that Kubernetes lends itself well to the multi-cloud strategies that many businesses are pursuing today. Other orchestrators may also work with multi-cloud infrastructures, but Kubernetes arguably goes above and beyond when it comes to multi-cloud flexibility.
Increased developer productivity
Kubernetes with its declarative constructs and its ops friendly approach has fundamentally changed deployment methodologies and it allows teams to use GitOps. Teams can scale and deploy faster than they ever could in the past. Instead of one deployment a month, teams can now deploy multiple times a day.
Open source
Kubernetes is a fully open source, community-led project overseen by the CNCF. It has several major corporate sponsors, but no one company “owns” it or has unilateral control over how the platform develop
Proven and battle-tested
Four or five years ago, you would have been brave to throw Kubernetes into production. At the time, it was a very new orchestrator, with few proven production deployments.
Market leader
Kubernetes adoption within enterprise IT environments is rising and no longer just a developer community project. In a recent survey, 59% of respondents cited they were running Kubernetes in production.
Business Benefits of Kubernetes
Portability and flexibility. Kubernetes works with virtually any type of container runtime. ...
Multi-cloud capability. ...
Increased developer productivity. ...
Open source. ...
Proven and battle-tested. ...
Market leader.
