What Is Container Orchestration, Exactly? Everything to Know

Container orchestration is a process that automates the management of containers, freeing engineers from tasks such as recreating, scaling, and upgrading them. It also helps manage networking and storage capabilities for containers. With the rise in popularity of containers for building software, container orchestration platforms have become essential to reduce operational workload. These platforms can automate various tasks like restarting crashed containers, scaling based on load, and ensuring even deployment across nodes. Managed and self-built (homegrown) options are available for implementing container orchestration platforms. DevOps engineers often focus on these platforms as they abstract infrastructure and allow them to concentrate on one platform. Container orchestration is particularly effective with microservices architecture, which involves splitting applications into smaller pieces that communicate via REST APIs. Docker containers are a popular way of packaging microservices for easy deployment. Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and OpenShift are some examples of container orchestration platforms. Managed Kubernetes services from cloud providers like Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, and IBM also exist.