Kubernetes as a Standard Container Orchestrator - A Bibliometric Analysis

Container orchestration systems simplify the deployment and maintenance of container-based applications, but developing efficient and well-defined orchestration systems is a challenge. Nowadays, Kubernetes is a leading open-source container orchestration platform that has become the de facto standard. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the Kubernetes orchestrator and grasp the current research emphasis by using a bibliometric analysis. Bibliometrix software was adopted as bibliometric analysis tools to find hot research topics and guide the future researching in the area. The Web of Science core collection database was used as the primary source for data collection. Data were collected from 803 articles published from 2014 to September 2022. In particular, publication outputs and research areas can provide insight into the development trends and current domains in terms of Kubernetes research. The most influential and productive authors, institutions, countries and journals contributed to this bibliometric analysis. The hottest research topics on Kubernetes are mainly centered on “cloud/fog/edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT)”, “containers and virtualization”, “docker”, “resource scheduling”, “microservices” and “artificial intelligent (AI)”. A cluster analysis was conducted from a keyword perspective to obtain emerging trends and frontiers for Kubernetes. The results showed that future research should focus on “automation”, “5G”, “scalability”, “resource scheduling”, “serverless”, “service mesh” and “blockchain”. Therefore, this paper aims to assist academics and practitioners in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the status quo and trends in Kubernetes research.