Kubernetes (often abbreviated K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform. It schedules containerised workloads across a fleet of nodes, handles service discovery + load balancing, auto-scales based on demand, and self-heals when nodes fail.
In 2026 the practical question is rarely "should we use Kubernetes" -- it is "managed K8s (EKS / GKE / AKS) or a simpler alternative (ECS, Cloud Run, App Service, Lambda)". For Indian enterprises with multi-service architectures and platform-engineering capacity, EKS is the default. For lean teams shipping single-service apps, ECS or Cloud Run is materially less operational overhead.
The Kubernetes failure mode at mid-market scale is operational: GitOps pipelines, secret management, networking policies, monitoring, and upgrade cadence all need ownership. Without a dedicated platform engineer, the cluster slowly turns into a debt-laden mystery.