Nomad
Nomad is an open-source workload orchestrator developed by HashiCorp that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized and non-containerized applications across on-premises and cloud environments. It uses a declarative job specification to schedule and run applications, supporting Docker, Java, binaries, and more, with built-in service discovery and load balancing. Nomad is designed for simplicity, flexibility, and high performance, often used in hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
Developers should learn Nomad when they need a lightweight, flexible orchestrator for diverse workloads beyond just containers, such as batch jobs, microservices, or legacy applications, especially in environments where Kubernetes might be overly complex. It is ideal for use cases requiring fast scheduling, multi-datacenter deployments, or integration with other HashiCorp tools like Consul and Vault for service mesh and secrets management. Nomad is particularly useful in scenarios where teams prioritize ease of use, minimal operational overhead, and support for heterogeneous infrastructure.