Kubernetes, often abbreviated as K8s, is an open-source container orchestration platform originally developed by Google and now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. It automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, allowing developers to efficiently manage complex applications across clusters of machines. Kubernetes provides essential features such as load balancing, service discovery, and automated rollouts and rollbacks, making it the de facto standard for container orchestration. By encapsulating applications and their dependencies in containers, Kubernetes ensures consistency and reliability in various environments, from development to production.