What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across a cluster of machines. It's the industry standard for running containers at scale.
In plain English
Kubernetes is like an air traffic controller for your containers. You tell it how many planes (containers) you need in the air and where they should land (which servers), and it handles takeoffs, landings, rerouting around storms, and dispatching replacements when a plane goes down.
How it works
You describe your desired state in YAML manifests — how many replicas, what resources each pod needs, how to handle rolling updates. Kubernetes continuously reconciles actual state with desired state, restarting crashed pods, scheduling new ones, and routing traffic automatically. Managed versions (GKE, EKS, AKS) handle the control plane for you.
Why it matters for AI-built apps
Kubernetes is overkill for most early-stage apps, but becomes essential once you're running multiple services that need independent scaling and deployment. AI-built microservices architectures benefit from Kubernetes' ability to manage dozens of services with consistent networking, secrets, and resource limits. It also gives you a consistent deployment target regardless of cloud provider.
Best practices
Don't reach for Kubernetes too early — managed platforms like Railway, Render, or Cloud Run cover most needs at lower operational cost. When you do adopt it, use Helm charts for reusable configurations and set resource requests and limits on every pod. Enable pod disruption budgets to prevent all replicas from being removed simultaneously during node maintenance.
Frequently asked questions
Should an early-stage startup use Kubernetes?
Probably not. The operational complexity is significant. Start with a managed platform and migrate to Kubernetes when you have dedicated DevOps capacity and a clear need.
What's a pod in Kubernetes?
A pod is the smallest deployable unit — typically one container, sometimes a few tightly-coupled ones. Each pod gets its own IP address within the cluster network.
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