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Intermediate 30 min
Container Orchestration 101
From Docker Compose to Kubernetes - when to use what, and how to orchestrate without over-engineering.
“Docker Compose is for when you have 3 services. Kubernetes is for when you have 3 services and want 17 more problems.”
What you'll learn
Docker ComposeSwarm vs K8sService discoveryScaling
Docker Compose is perfect for dev environments and edge deployments (1-5 services, one host). Define services, networks, and volumes in a YAML file. docker compose up - done.
Kubernetes is for when you need: auto-scaling, self-healing, rolling updates, multi-host networking, and declarative state management. It's operationally expensive - only use when you outgrow Compose.