What is a control plane?

A Control Plane in computing refers to the part of a network or system that manages and controls how data is routed and handled, as opposed to actually moving the data itself (which is done by the data plane). The control plane is responsible for tasks such as network topology management, routing decisions, and policy enforcement. In cloud computing and Kubernetes, the control plane manages the overall system state, scheduling, and coordination of resources. It ensures that the system operates efficiently and according to the defined rules and policies.