Kubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source platform for orchestrating containerized applications. Originally developed by Google and now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Kubernetes automatically manages the deployment, scaling and operation of Containerization in production environments.
Why Kubernetes for web projects?
Once an application consists of multiple services – frontend, backend, database, cache, workers – manual container management becomes impractical. Kubernetes automates scaling under load, restarts on failures (self-healing), rolling updates without downtime and load balancing across multiple instances. For Web Apps with high availability requirements, Kubernetes is the standard solution.
Core concepts: Pods, Services, Deployments
Pod: the smallest deployable unit – one or more containers sharing network and storage. Service: a stable network endpoint that routes requests to Pods. Deployment: defines the desired state (number of replicas, image version) and ensures automatic convergence. Namespace: logical separation of environments (dev, staging, production). ConfigMaps and Secrets: configuration and Secret Management without image rebuilds.
Kubernetes and CI/CD
Kubernetes is typically integrated as the target environment in CI/CD pipelines. After a successful build and test, a new container image is pushed to a registry and rolled out in the cluster via kubectl or GitOps tools (ArgoCD, Flux). Infrastructure as Code with Helm Charts or Kustomize defines the entire cluster state declaratively.
When is Kubernetes overkill?
For simple websites, static pages or small API projects, Kubernetes is oversized. Docker Compose with a Reverse Proxy is sufficient for many scenarios. The complexity of Kubernetes is only justified for multi-service architectures, high availability requirements or dynamic scaling. Managed Kubernetes (GKE, EKS, AKS) significantly reduces operational overhead.
How we use it
For most client projects at BTECH Solutions, Docker Compose with Apache as a Reverse Proxy is sufficient – simple, maintainable and cost-effective. We use Kubernetes selectively when multi-service architectures with high availability requirements are needed. In those cases, we rely on Managed Kubernetes (GKE/EKS), define cluster configurations as Infrastructure as Code with Helm Charts, and secure Pods via Security Contexts, Network Policies and RBAC.