Why “Kubernetes”?

We are often asked what Kubernetes means and why we have chosen it as a brand. The best description we found is from the Word Detective…..

kubernetes {koo-ber-nay’-tace}

The Greek word “kubernetes,” means “helmsman of a ship,” or, more metaphorically, “ruler.” The Latin descendant of “kubernetes” was “gubernare,” meaning “to rule,” which gave us the English word “gubernator” around 1522, meaning “ruler.” The adjective “gubernatorial,” which appeared around 1734, at first meant “pertaining to a ruler or governor” in the generic sense of “governor,” but today is almost always only used in reference to state officials bearing the formal title “Governor.”

Now, if we back up a moment to that Latin word “gubernare,” we find that it was also filtered through Old French to produce the word “governeur,” meaning “ruler,” which gave us the English word “governor” in the 14th century. So “governor” and “gubernatorial” are very closely related.

The French also used the Greek “kubernetes” (ruler) to produce the word “cybernetique,” meaning “the art of governing.” In the late 1940s, the American mathematician Norbert Weiner appropriated and Anglicized “cybernetique” as “cybernetics”. Cybernetics is the study of organization, communication and control in complex systems by focusing on circular (feedback) mechanisms. Writer William Gibson then modified Weiner’s term in his 1984 science fiction novel “Neuromancer,” coining everyone’s least-favorite buzz-word, “cyberspace.”

There are a number of reasons why we latched onto Kubernetes as a company name.

• First of all our founder Jeremy Renwick is an avid sailor and is a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster
• We use cybernetics in our day to day work as we believe that everything is connected and only by looking at the whole problem, and how it is linked with other issues, can you take effective action that won’t lead to problems appearing elsewhere.
• We have a strong interest in governance of all kinds, but particularly political governance.
• We have spent the majority of our careers in the software and telecommunications industries building on, and operating in, “cyberspace”