Kubernetes Service

by
Jim Gaynor

by
Jim Gaynor

Jim leads the Directions on Microsoft editorial team and has been writing about technology since the early 1990s. Most recently... more

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Microsoft’s flagship Kubernetes (often abbreviated as “K8s”) offering, provides orchestration (deployment, provisioning, and automation) and management of container-based production applications as a managed Azure service. Kubernetes is the most broadly used open source software solution for container orchestration. AKS deploys and manages VM-based container host infrastructure and updates the VMs and Kubernetes software, which can simplify infrastructure management for the customer.

Product: Azure Kubernetes Service

Near Term (2025-2026)

AKS receives numerous and frequent updates, with improvements provided both by AKS itself in the form of management and Azure integrations, and by new Kubernetes versions. Notable AKS capabilities in preview include the following:

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AKS allows AI agents to interact with AKS clusters to perform cluster management and retrieve monitoring data. It could help create agent-based workflows for automation and autonomous operation.