The Operating System of the Cloud

Overview of the operating system of the cloud.

Kubernetes has emerged as the de-facto platform for deploying and managing cloud-native applications. In many ways, it’s like an operating system (OS) for the cloud. Consider this:

  • You install a traditional OS (Linux or Windows) on a server, and the OS abstracts the physical server’s resources and schedules processes etc.

  • You install Kubernetes on a cloud, and it abstracts the cloud’s resources and schedules the various microservices of cloud-native applications.

In the same way that Linux abstracts the hardware differences of different server platforms, Kubernetes abstracts the differences between different private and public clouds. Net result: as long as you’re running Kubernetes, it doesn’t matter if the underlying systems are on-premises in your own data center, edge clusters, or in the public cloud.

With this in mind, Kubernetes enables a true hybrid cloud, allowing you to seamlessly move and balance workloads across multiple different public and private cloud infrastructures. You can also migrate to and from different clouds, meaning you can choose a cloud today and not have to stick with that decision for the rest of your life.

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