Which Kubernetes object is designed specifically for managing external HTTP/S traffic?

The Ingress resource is specifically designed to manage external HTTP/S traffic in a Kubernetes cluster. It provides a way to configure rules for accessing services from outside the cluster, facilitating the routing of external requests to the appropriate internal services based on specified criteria, such as hostnames or paths.

Ingress can also handle SSL termination, allowing secure connections over HTTPS, and can manage complex routing scenarios, making it a crucial component for managing inbound traffic. This enables developers to define how external users can access services through a consolidated and organized approach, rather than needing to expose each service on a separate load balancer.

Other Kubernetes objects like Services are related to networking within the cluster but do not provide the specialized routing capabilities that Ingress does. Pods are the smallest deployment unit that encapsulates a running process, while Deployments are higher-level constructs for managing sets of Pods. Neither Pods nor Deployments focus specifically on managing external traffic like Ingress does.