All terms

Glossary

Kubernetes

Also: K8s

A system that distributes containers across machines, restarts them, scales them and manages their reachability.

Kubernetes takes over work you would otherwise build yourself: scheduling, restart after crash, rolling deployment, service discovery.

It brings its own complexity. Running three services costs more in operations and knowledge than it returns in automation.

How you notice it

  • There are more than a handful of services with their own lifecycle.
  • Deployment and restart happen manually or by script today.
  • Somebody on the team wants to and is allowed to operate the platform.

Frequently asked

Do I need Kubernetes for three services?

No. With three services operational effort exceeds the gain, and a container service such as ECS or App Runner suffices. Kubernetes becomes sensible when several teams deploy independently and the platform itself has an owner.

Read morePublishing platform on Kubernetes