Kubernetes provides a relatively simple abstraction to represent a cluster of machines as a single entity. It's just about as simple as it can be IMO. Its simp

Kubernetes provides a relatively simple abstraction to represent a cluster of machines as a single entity. It's just about as simple as it can be IMO. Its simplicity leverages the idea that each part of your software should be fully responsible for its own lifecycle and can handle and recover from all scenarios that can impact it. For example, if your app service happens to launch before your database service, then it should be able to seamlessly handle this situation and keep trying to reconnect until the database service is started. This characteristic is generally desirable in any operating environment but it is critical for Kubernetes. Its orchestration model is declarative, so it doesn't make much fuss over launch order... Yet it works well and simply if each of your services have this failure tolerance and self-healing characteristic.