Kubernetes is an open-source platform for automating deployment, scaling, and operations of containerized applications. It provides tools to deploy containers across clusters of hosts, provide mechanisms for load-balancing, monitor health, and update containers. Kubernetes adds functionality to Docker by managing Docker hosts and containers at scale. It uses abstractions like pods, replica sets, deployments, services and ingresses to declaratively define application components and expose them using NodePorts, LoadBalancers or Ingresses. Users can interact with Kubernetes using kubectl to deploy and manage applications on the cluster.