Kubernetes (often abbreviated as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform developed by Google. It aims to simplify the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes provides a framework for automating various aspects of application deployment, scaling, and operations across a cluster of machines.

Here are some key concepts and features of Kubernetes:

1. Containerization: Kubernetes is built around the idea of containers, which are lightweight and portable units that encapsulate an application and its dependencies. Containers provide isolation and consistency, allowing applications to run consistently across different environments.
2. Cluster Management: Kubernetes manages a cluster of machines (physical or virtual) called nodes. Nodes are organized into a master node and multiple worker nodes. The master node coordinates and manages the cluster, while the worker nodes host and run the application containers.
3. Pod: The basic scheduling unit in Kubernetes is a pod. A pod represents one or more tightly coupled containers that are scheduled together on the same node. Containers within a pod share the same network namespace, allowing them to communicate with each other easily.
4. Scaling and Load Balancing: Kubernetes supports automatic scaling of applications based on resource utilization, allowing the application to handle increased traffic or demand. It can dynamically scale the number of replicas (instances) of an application based on predefined metrics. Kubernetes also provides built-in load balancing for distributing incoming traffic across application replicas.
5. Service Discovery and Networking: Kubernetes provides an abstraction called services that enable automatic discovery and load balancing of pods. Services provide a stable network endpoint that applications can use to communicate with other services within the cluster.
6. Self-Healing and Rolling Updates: Kubernetes monitors the health of application pods and automatically restarts or replaces unhealthy pods. It also supports rolling updates, allowing applications to be updated without downtime by gradually replacing old instances with new ones.
7. Configuration and Secret Management: Kubernetes offers mechanisms to manage configuration settings and sensitive information (such as passwords or API keys) through ConfigMaps and Secrets, respectively. This allows applications to consume configuration and secrets from these resources without hardcoding them.
8. Extensibility and Ecosystem: Kubernetes provides a rich ecosystem of extensions, including support for storage orchestration, advanced networking, logging, monitoring, and more. It also supports declarative configuration through YAML or JSON files, enabling infrastructure as code practices.

Kubernetes has gained significant popularity and adoption in the industry, as it simplifies the deployment and management of containerized applications in a scalable and resilient manner. It helps organizations achieve better resource utilization, faster deployments, and improved application availability.