1.4 Summary

In this introductory chapter, you’ve learned that:

• Kubernetes is Greek for helmsman. As a ship’s captain oversees the ship while the helmsman steers it, you oversee your computer cluster, while Kubernetes performs the day-to-day management tasks.
• Kubernetes is pronounced koo-ber-netties. Kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line tool, is pronounced kube-control.
• Kubernetes is an open-source project built upon Google’s vast experience in running applications on a global scale. Thousands of individuals now contribute to it.
• Kubernetes uses a declarative model to describe application deployments. After you provide a description of your application to Kubernetes, it brings it to life.
• Kubernetes is like an operating system for the cluster. It abstracts the infrastructure and presents all computers in a data center as one large, contiguous deployment area.
• Microservice-based applications are more difficult to manage than monolithic applications. The more microservices you have, the more you need to automate their management with a system like Kubernetes.
• Kubernetes helps both development and operations teams to do what they do best. It frees them from mundane tasks and introduces a standard way of deploying applications both on-premises and in any cloud.
• Using Kubernetes allows developers to deploy applications without the help of system administrators. It reduces operational costs through better utilization of existing hardware, automatically adjusts your system to load fluctuations, and heals itself and the applications running on it.
• A Kubernetes cluster consists of master and worker nodes. The master nodes run the Control Plane, which controls the entire cluster, while the worker nodes run the deployed applications or workloads, and therefore represent the Workload Plane.
• Using Kubernetes is simple, but managing it is hard. An inexperienced team should use a Kubernetes-as-a-Service offering instead of deploying Kubernetes by itself.

So far, you’ve only observed the ship from the pier. It’s time to come aboard. But before you leave the docks, you should inspect the shipping containers it’s carrying. You’ll do this next.