The Commit Log

Kubernetes has become the standard for container orchestration. But depending on your infrastructure constraints (limited resources, edge computing, IoT, or large-scale enterprise clusters), the distribution you choose can radically change the operational experience. K3s and K8s (upstream Kubernetes) address different needs, even though both share the same CNCF-certified foundation.

When people start exploring cloud-native technologies, one confusion comes up almost every time: are Docker and Kubernetes competitors? Do you have to choose between them? And why do people so often talk about Docker “with” Kubernetes?

K8S, short for Kubernetes, is an open source container orchestration system originally developed by Google and donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2015. It automates the deployment, scaling, resilience, and networking of containerized applications across clusters of servers. In just over a decade, K8S has become the technical foundation on which a majority of modern cloud applications run.

Clever Cloud was founded in 2010. At that point, Docker did not exist, and Kubernetes even less. The problem, however, was already there: running our first customers' applications reliably, in isolation, and predictably.

Previewed at Devoxx starting April 22, CKE is the culmination of two years of R&D built around a complete reimplementation of Kubernetes.

At Clever Cloud, we held off for a long time before offering a managed Kubernetes service. Not out of technological reluctance, Kubernetes is a great tool… but it was never designed to make developers’ lives easier.