containerd Without Docker: the Runtime Under Your Cluster

When you built the cluster , the container runtime under the kubelet was containerd, with Docker nowhere in sight. That trips people up, because for a decade &ldquo;containers&rdquo; and &ldquo;Docker&rdquo; were the same word. They are not, and on a Kubernetes node in 2026 Docker has no role at all. This post is the deeper look at the runtime your whole platform actually runs on: what containerd…