Intermediate · Systems

Kubernetes

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. An open-source platform for orchestrating containerized applications at scale.

Technical Definition

An open-source platform for orchestrating containerized applications at scale.

How it works

Kubernetes schedules containers across clusters, handles autoscaling, networking, secrets, and rolling updates. ML-specific extensions (Kubeflow, KServe, Ray) layer training pipelines, hyperparameter tuning, and model serving on top.

Related Concepts

• Scalability — A system's ability to handle increasing load by adding resources.
• Containerization — Packaging an application with all its dependencies so it runs consistently across environments.
• Microservices — An architectural style where applications are built as small, independently deployable services.