---
title: What is Karmada?
slug: /

---

## Karmada: Open, Multi-Cloud, Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Orchestration

Karmada (Kubernetes Armada) is a Kubernetes management system that enables you to run your cloud-native applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters and clouds, with no changes to your applications. By speaking Kubernetes-native APIs and providing advanced scheduling capabilities, Karmada enables truly open, multi-cloud Kubernetes.

Karmada aims to provide turnkey automation for multi-cluster application management in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud scenarios,
with key features such as centralized multi-cloud management, high availability, failure recovery, and traffic scheduling.

Karmada is an incubation project of the [Cloud Native Computing Foundation](https://cncf.io/) (CNCF).

## Why Karmada:
- __K8s Native API Compatible__
    - Zero change upgrade, from single-cluster to multi-cluster
    - Seamless integration of existing K8s tool chain

- __Out of the Box__
    - Built-in policy sets for scenarios, including: Active-active, Remote DR, Geo Redundant, etc.
    - Cross-cluster applications auto-scaling, failover and load-balancing on multi-cluster.

- __Avoid Vendor Lock-in__
    - Integration with mainstream cloud providers
    - Automatic allocation, migration across clusters
    - Not tied to proprietary vendor orchestration

- __Centralized Management__
    - Location agnostic cluster management
    - Support clusters in Public cloud, on-prem or edge

- __Fruitful Multi-Cluster Scheduling Policies__
    - Cluster Affinity, Multi Cluster Splitting/Rebalancing,
    - Multi-Dimension HA: Region/AZ/Cluster/Provider

- __Open and Neutral__
    - Jointly initiated by Internet, finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, cloud providers, etc.
    - Target for open governance with CNCF



**Notice: this project is developed in continuation of Kubernetes [Federation v1](https://github.com/kubernetes-retired/federation) and [v2](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kubefed). Some basic concepts are inherited from these two versions.**


## What's Next

Here are some recommended next steps:

- Learn Karmada's [core concepts](./concepts.md).
- Learn Karmada's [architecture](./architecture.md).
- Start to [install Karmada](../installation/installation.md).
- Get started with [interactive tutorials](https://killercoda.com/karmada/).