ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Orchestration (computing)

Orchestration in computing is like being the conductor of a band. Just like a conductor brings all the different instruments together to create beautiful music, orchestration brings together different software components and applications to work together as a unified whole.

Imagine that you have a lot of different computer programs or applications that all accomplish different tasks. They may have their own settings, requirements, and dependencies. Orchestration is the process of managing all these different programs and making sure they work together effectively.

It's like having a recipe for a really amazing cake. You need to put in different ingredients at different times and they need to be mixed in specific ways. If you don't follow the recipe exactly, you might end up with a cake that doesn't taste good or doesn't rise properly. Orchestration is like following the recipe correctly, but it's for programs instead of ingredients.

Orchestration can also automate tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming or repetitive. Imagine having to manually start and stop several different programs every day. Orchestration can take care of this for you, so you don't have to waste your own time.

So, in simple terms, orchestration is the process of bringing together different software components so that they work together like a well-oiled machine, just like a conductor manages a band to make beautiful music.