"K8" is a common abbreviation for "Kubernetes," which is an open-source container orchestration

platform. Kubernetes is designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of

containerized applications. Containers are lightweight, portable, and consistent environments that
package an application and its dependencies together, making it easier to deploy and manage
applications across different environments.

Kubernetes provides a set of tools and features to manage the lifecycle of containers, including:

Container Deployment: Kubernetes can deploy containers across a cluster of machines, handling the
distribution and scheduling of containers based on resource availability and constraints.

Scaling: Kubernetes can automatically scale the number of container instances up or down based on
factors like CPU utilization or incoming traffic.

Load Balancing: It provides load balancing to distribute incoming network traffic across multiple
instances of a container, ensuring optimal utilization and availability.

Self-Healing: If a container or node fails, Kubernetes automatically detects it and reschedules the
container to a healthy node.

Configuration Management: Kubernetes allows you to define and manage application configurations
separately from the application itself, making it easier to update or roll back configurations.

Storage Orchestration: It provides mechanisms to manage storage volumes and attach them to
containers as needed.

Automated Updates and Rollbacks: Kubernetes can perform rolling updates of applications, ensuring
zero-downtime updates, and allowing easy rollbacks if issues arise.

Secrets and Configuration Management: Kubernetes offers a way to manage sensitive information and
configuration parameters securely.
Service Discovery and Networking: Kubernetes sets up networking to allow communication between
containers and provides mechanisms for service discovery within the cluster.

Multi-Environment Consistency: With Kubernetes, you can define the desired state of your applications
and infrastructure using declarative configuration files, ensuring consistency across various
environments.

Kubernetes has become a standard tool in the world of modern application development and
deployment, particularly for applications that are designed using microservices architecture and are
deployed in containers. It abstracts away many of the complexities of managing containerized
applications and helps teams focus on developing and delivering features rather than managing
infrastructure.