What is Container ?

A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. Container images become containers at runtime and in the case of Docker containers – images become containers when they run on Docker Engine. Available for both Linux and Windows-based applications, containerized software will always run the same, regardless of the infrastructure.

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery. Kubernetes builds upon 15 years of experience of running production workloads at Google, combined with best-of-breed ideas and practices from the community.

Amazon EKS is a managed version of the Kubernetes platform and Amazon has another platform called ECS Elastic Container Service which is based on the Docker platform but the industry is moving towards using Kubernetes as a defacto standard for container orchestration and Amazon embraced it with EKS.

Google Kubernetes Engine is the managed version of the Kubernetes platform, Google invented the Kubernetes platform and then outsourced it to opensource which is now a managed service known as GKE. GKE clusters are powered by the Kubernetes open-source cluster management system. Kubernetes provides the mechanisms through which you interact with your cluster. You use Kubernetes commands and resources to deploy and manage your applications, perform administration tasks, set policies, and monitor the health of your deployed workloads.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed Kubernetes offering that further simplifies container-based application deployment and management. Azure Kubernetes Service is a robust and cost-effective container orchestration service that helps you to deploy and manage containerized applications in seconds where additional resources are assigned automatically without the headache of managing additional servers