What are the best tools for creating, managing, and orchestrating containers? Let’s shed some light on Kubernetes and Docker, their differences, and their functions.
Kubernetes vs Docker: which one is right for my company? Which is more functional for container management?
These questions, however common, stem from the misconception that Kubernetes and Docker are competing tools. In reality, we can consider them complementary, and both are very useful for creating, managing, and orchestrating containers effectively.
To solve the mystery in a few words: Docker is a containerization platform. Kubernetes is a container orchestrator for container platforms like Docker.
A third element can also be added to this comparison: Docker Swarm, Docker’s native clustering solution. As we’ll see later, however, in terms of functionality and complexity, it’s hardly comparable to Kubernetes.
From this new perspective, the right questions to ask are:
- What are Kubernetes and Docker, and how do they work?
- What benefits can I gain from these tools?
- How can I use them together to maximize their effectiveness?
In this article, we’ll introduce both technologies, their functions, and their advantages. We’ll try to untangle the Kubernetes vs Docker question and help you choose the best tools for developing modern, high-performing applications.
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What is Docker
Docker is one of the pillars of the container programming world. This name is used to refer to the containerization technology, the open source project from which it originated and its community, as well as the sponsoring company, Docker Inc., and the tools it supports. In this article, we’ll use the term “Docker” to refer to the technology itself, but the many uses of the word demonstrate how Docker is one of the most important players in containerized application development.
What Docker fundamentally deals with is the process of creating and running containers, and the subsequent storage and sharing of the images produced by this process.
The platform offers numerous advantages over traditional Linux containers:
- it enables faster deployment, eliminating the need to start an operating system when adding or modifying a container;
- it allows rollback thanks to its layered image composition;
- it has excellent portability since Docker containerizes individual applications together with all the configuration files they need to run.
Docker is free, but it also has a paid Enterprise version that offers advanced features and additional benefits.
What is Kubernetes
Kubernetes was born from a Google project that became open source in 2014 and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Its name comes from Greek and means helmsman or pilot; this is because Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform.
But what does orchestration mean? Orchestration is a procedure that helps teams manage complex tasks and workflows more efficiently through automated configuration, management, and coordination operations. Returning to the nautical analogy, we can say that Kubernetes is the “autopilot” that teams can program to manage even the most complex IT systems.
There are numerous and significant benefits of Kubernetes for businesses, both in terms of application development time and costs, and in terms of their quality and competitiveness in today’s Digital Transformation. The Cloud Native nature of this platform makes it more flexible in multi-cloud environments, easily scalable, and migratable to new cloud environments.
For these very reasons, Kubernetes has been chosen by many major players. In our article about companies using containers and Kubernetes, for example, you can read why Primerica, Spotify, and Caleffi decided to entrust this tool with the orchestration of their systems.
Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes
As we mentioned earlier, on a logical level the real competitor to Kubernetes is Docker Swarm, the orchestration tool offered directly by Docker. It should be noted, however, that Swarm offers fewer advantages compared to Kubernetes; for example, it doesn’t offer auto-scaling and is limited by the exclusive use of the Docker API. On the other hand, it has a good supporting community, is easy to install, and guides you through learning how to use it.
It can therefore be a good solution if your application is simple and doesn’t have significant configuration requirements, and if you need something you can set up quickly.
If, on the other hand, you need to scale your application or manage a certain level of complexity, Swarm might be too restrictive. In these cases, by choosing Kubernetes you’ll benefit from auto-scaling and greater customization options. But beware of the flip side, because you should also take into account that the learning process might be a bit more difficult and longer, at least initially.
Kubernetes vs Docker: is it right to compare them?
As we’ve seen, the two tools have different functions and are complementary to each other. Docker, in simple terms, creates and runs fast, portable, and scalable containers in which applications reside. For its part, Kubernetes manages these containers within IT systems with two objectives:
- ensuring that the workflow from container creation to distribution is as fast and efficient as possible;
- making sure that even when a container fails, a solution is already in place to prevent the application from experiencing downtime.
By now it should be clear: there’s no need to choose between Kubernetes and Docker. In fact, it’s precisely from their combined use that you can gain the greatest benefits for your application.
