Running a few Docker containers manually is relatively simple, but managing hundreds of containers across multiple servers becomes challenging. Kubernetes solves this problem by providing a platform for container orchestration.

Kubernetes can automatically deploy applications, restart failed containers, distribute workloads, scale services, and perform rolling updates.

A typical Kubernetes environment consists of a control plane and worker nodes. Applications are deployed using Kubernetes resources such as Pods, Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, and Secrets.

Kubernetes is particularly valuable for cloud-native applications where reliability, scalability, and automated deployment are important.

The Kubernetes project describes kubectl as the command-line tool used to deploy applications, inspect resources, manage clusters, and view logs