A Beginner’s Guide to Kubernetes: What, Why, and How ?

If you’re new to the DevOps or cloud-native world, you’ve probably heard of Kubernetes (often called K8s) being mentioned all the time. But what is it, really? And why do so many companies—from startups to tech giants—rely on it to run their applications

In this post, I’ll walk you through the basics of Kubernetes, explain why it’s so important, and help you understand how to get started, even if you're a complete beginner.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It was originally developed by Google and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Let me simplify it:

Imagine you have multiple apps running in Docker containers. Kubernetes is the smart manager that makes sure those apps are deployed properly, scaled when needed, and restarted automatically if they crash.

 Why Kubernetes?

Before Kubernetes, managing containers at scale was a nightmare. Teams had to deploy manually, manage hardware resources, monitor health checks, and handle outages themselves.

Here’s what Kubernetes brings to the table:

• Auto-healing: If a container goes down, Kubernetes restarts it.

• Scalability: Automatically scales apps up/down based on usage.

• Load balancing: Distributes traffic across containers efficiently.

• Rollback & Updates: Roll out new changes safely and roll back if something breaks.

• Infrastructure abstraction: Run Kubernetes on any cloud provider or even on-premises.

In short, Kubernetes makes deploying and managing apps easier, smarter, and faster.

 Key Concepts to Know

Before jumping into using Kubernetes, you should understand a few core components:

Concept	What It Means
Pod	The smallest unit in Kubernetes. It wraps one or more containers.
Node	A virtual or physical machine where your containers run.
Cluster	A group of nodes managed by Kubernetes.
Deployment	Describes how to create and update Pods.
Service	Provides a stable endpoint (IP address) for a group of Pods.
Ingress	Manages external access (like HTTP traffic) to services.

How to Get Started with Kubernetes

Here’s a simple roadmap to begin your Kubernetes journey:

1. Learn Docker First

Kubernetes orchestrates Docker containers. So it’s best to start with Docker basics like docker run, docker build, and docker-compose.

2. Install Minikube or Kind

These tools let you run Kubernetes locally on your machine, so you don’t need a cloud account to start learning.

bash

# Start a local Kubernetes cluster with Minikube

minikube start

3. Use kubectl – The Kubernetes CLI

This is the command-line tool to interact with your cluster.

bash

kubectl get pods

kubectl apply -f myapp.yaml

kubectl delete pod mypod

4. Deploy Your First App

Create a simple file called pod.yaml:

Yaml

apiVersion: v1

kind: Pod

metadata:

  name: nginx-pod

spec:

  containers:

  - name: nginx-container

    image: nginx

Run it:

bash

kubectl apply -f pod.yaml