Kubernetes

7 Best Kubernetes Books of All Time in 2023

In the past few years, container technology has been rapidly adopted across all kinds of organizations. As a result, many businesses now run their services on Kubernetes, Google’s popular container management system. When companies adopt the DevOps way of doing things, it's almost guaranteed they'll use Kubernetes.

This is why Kubernetes skills are in high demand. There are many great resources for learning about this tool, but most are outdated or too narrow in content. To make your search for Kubernetes knowledge easy, we have created this list of 7 books to help you master containerization at scale.

After reading these books, you will be able to deploy and manage large-scale containers in your organization. These books cover from basics to advanced concepts of Kubernetes.

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1. The Kubernetes Book

Image credits: Nigel Poulton

Nigel Poulton's 'The Kubernetes Book' starts by explaining all the basic concepts in a more straightforward way. It covers everything you need - in detail - to become a proficient Kubernetes user. The important topics covered in this book are:

Architecture of Kubernetes
How to install and build with Kubernetes
How to work with Kubernetes: Auto scaling, self-healing, rollback, etc
Securing Kubernetes and APIs
Explaining the meaning of cloud-native, containerization, microservices, etc

This book is updated every year, which is how it remains relevant. For this reason, it is one of the best books you can start with.

2. Kubernetes Up & Running: Dive into The Future of Infrastructure

Image credits: O’Reilly

This book is written by the famous trio Joe Beda, Brendan Burns, and Kelsey Hightower. You get a realistic view of how Kubernetes can help you achieve speed, agility, and efficiency levels. In addition, the book has practical approaches to creating a simple cluster to understand how Kubernetes works. It also explains the strategies for deploying an application using Kubernetes. You will get a lot of practical examples of how real-world applications can be built and deployed with Kubernetes.

3. Kubernetes in Action

Image credits: O’Reilly

This book is a comprehensive guide to effectively using Kubernetes. It has in-depth explanations about how to develop and run applications using Kubernetes. The book describes the containerization concept and technologies like Docker in detail. It explains how to practically create containers so even beginners can grasp these concepts quickly.

The book starts with the basics and then continues with advanced topics. It slowly gets into more profound concepts, making you understand how different Kubernetes features work. As you go through this journey, you will appreciate valuable Kubernetes topics. There's plenty of focus on features such as scaling, security, high availability, etc.

4. Kubernetes Best Practices

Image credits: O’Reilly

This book is a practical Kubernetes guide. It helps you understand what orchestration is and how to build and scale applications using Kubernetes. The book contains real-life examples of running Kubernetes in production. It also includes code examples so you can replicate these simple tutorials and learn quickly.

This book is a good fit for anyone who is already familiar with basic Kubernetes concepts. It's an apt book for those who want to gain an in-depth understanding of best practices and how deployments work. Some of the main topics the book touches on are networking in Kubernetes, security policies, monitoring, rollouts and rollbacks, and so on.

5. Cloud Native DevOps with Kubernetes

Image credits: O’Reilly

This book has everything that you should know about Kubernetes. From basics to advanced, in a step-by-step manner. You will be able to build a cloud-native application and the supporting infrastructure. In addition, you will understand how to build a continuous deployment pipeline for your example application. This book provides a complete understanding of cloud-native applications and all the related terminologies.

The book does an exceptional job of holding your hand throughout till the end. It will make you completely aware of all the essential Kubernetes concepts with a practical approach. By the end of this book, you will become an expert on the industry's best Kubernetes practices. You will be able to deploy applications using Kubernetes, optimize the clusters for performance, and secure the clusters and applications deployed. In addition, you will grasp everything about using Kubernetes to handle resource usage and the container lifecycle.

6. Kubernetes Patterns

Image credits: RedHat

With this guide, Bilgin Ibryam and Roland Huß from Red Hat have conveyed an excellent cheat sheet on using Kubernetes. The book has common reusable elements, best practices, patterns, and principles. It also describes the techniques for designing, implementing, and managing cloud-native applications on Kubernetes. Each pattern clearly shows a problem and proposes a relevant Kubernetes-specific solution.

The book has appropriate code examples wherever possible. The book is highly recommended for anyone who is already familiar with Kubernetes and wants to upgrade their skills. This is the book to learn more about the best Kubernetes patterns and practices.

7. Kubernetes Cookbook

Image credits: O’Reilly

If you are a DevOps engineer or an architect and want to tackle the challenges of high availability and scalability, this is the book for you. It has it all when it comes to Kubernetes. The book has more straightforward concepts and examples to make you proficient in using Kubernetes successfully. You will learn how to manage containerized applications as a whole.

You'll also get a hands-on feel for scaling, securing, and running them in production. The book authors, Sébastien Goasguen and Michael Hausenblas have done a great job of including several detailed solutions. If you are using Kubernetes in both development and production, this is a must-have book. In addition, the book has ready-to-use recipes to give you an idea of possible solutions.

Below mentioned are our top-notch courses on Kubernetes:

Conclusion

Kubernetes has become the standard choice when adopting a cloud-native approach. Having a vibrant community, this tool is currently ruling the container ecosystem. Every organization that wants to upgrade itself in the cloud-native journey has to adopt Kubernetes.

Knowing Kubernetes is an added advantage for developers, SREs, architects, and DevOps professionals. The books mentioned above significantly impact your Kubernetes learning curve and boost your confidence. At KodeKloud, we have the highest-rated course on Kubernetes. We cover everything, from basic to advanced topics. And our hands-on labs help you learn much faster through practical exercises.

Check out our Kubernetes Learning Path.