Why K8s: eight letters and a helmsman

From the Kubernetes docs: the name comes from Greek and means helmsman or pilot. K8s is what you get by counting the eight letters between the K and the s.

Check yourself

When did Kubernetes go open source? Answer: Google open sourced it in 2014. The docs add that it combines over 15 years of Google's experience running production workloads at scale with ideas and practices from the community.

Important

A ship with a helmsman knows who's steering. For a cluster, that means one named person is accountable for upgrades. A shared inbox doesn't steer.

Who is steering?

• ☐ Name one owner per cluster
• ☐ Name who runs the upgrades
• ☐ Name who must be told
• ☐ Check the list twice a year

Project charter — name who answers for it →

Source: kubernetes.io, Overview.