With the increasing use of cloud and mobile platforms, software developers commonly use “containers” to house applications that can run in these multiple environments. The container holds all the components necessary for applications to work, including the operating system, libraries, configuration files, application binaries, and other parts of the technology stack required for the application. The use of containers has become an integral part of managing current IT infrastructure.

Kubernates  is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It was originally designed by Google in 2014 as a way to distribute Google applications to other developers. Google established the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) to maintain Kubernates and promote use of the technology.

The most important advantage of using Kubernetes is that it gives developers the platform to schedule and run containers on clusters of physical or virtual machines. Kubernetes orchestration allows developers to build application services across multiple hosts, scale containerized applications, and make better use of hardware to maximize resources needed to run enterprise apps. Advantages of utilizing the Kubernates platform include:

• Scaling Potential. Because Kubernetes is built on the same principles that allows Google to run billions of application containers a week, Kubernetes is extremely scalable.
• Run Anywhere. The open source nature of Kubernates gives developers the freedom to take advantage of on-premises and cloud infrastructure to move workloads for optimum performance.
• Unlimited Growth. Kubernetes offers developers flexibility to grow and deliver applications consistently and easily no matter the complexity of the application, including the ability to add storage when required.

Kubernetes is becoming the industry standard for container orchestration. Last summer, in quick succession, major enterprise players joined CNCF as AWS, Oracle, Microsoft, VMware and Pivotal all joined. They followed other major vendors such as Red Hat, Intel, IBM Cisco, and others that were already members.

We will continue to monitor as Kubernates increasingly gains influence and a greater foothold in the container orchestration market and provide updates in future posts at Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis.