Cloud Without Compromise

Appendix. Speaking Kubernetes and Other Strange-Sounding Names

Open source software can be a fickle thing, with some projects blowing up like a viral TikTok trend, only to be forgotten a year later (OpenStack, we’re looking at you). However, there are certain open source projects born to solve critical problems and combined with a strong community that go on to become indispensable—they live on to power the world’s applications for decades to come. One of the first examples of this was Linux, which was born out of the need for a free operating system. Similarly, a number of projects revolutionized their respective areas—Jenkins for DevOps, NGINX for web servers, Eclipse for development environments...and the list goes on. Kubernetes revolutionized the container orchestration space and claimed its throne by defeating strong open source competitors, including Docker’s own Swarm and Apache Mesos. So how did Kubernetes (K8s) stand so far ahead?

So far, we’ve kept our terminology very neutral and generic and consciously avoided the special language that has grown up around Kubernetes. In this appendix we wanted you to learn K8s in the same way you would prepare as a tourist if you were stopping at a Greek island for the day. While you may not learn how to say “I’d like the lamb rare please, on a bed of orzo in an avgolemono stock,” you are certainly going to learn how to say “Efaresto” (Thanks), “Endaxi” (OK), “Kalosto” (Hello), or what to say when you take your first shot of Ouzo—“Stin ...