# Deploy and Manage Confluent Manager for Apache Flink Applications Flink applications are deployed in Confluent Platform with Confluent Manager for Apache Flink® (CMF), which is a central management component of Confluent Platform for Apache Flink. CMF enables you to manage a fleet of Flink jobs, either applications or SQL statements, across multiple environments. CMF applications are resources consisting of a Flink job, a Flink configuration, the specification of a Flink Kubernetes cluster, and status information. Flink jobs are packaged as Java JAR files and can be implemented in any Flink API, such as the DataStream API, Table API, or SQL. #### NOTE CMF’s SQL support provided by the [Statement API](../sql-statements/overview.md#flink-sql-overview) is a more user-friendly way to run and manage Flink SQL queries. However, CMF Statements still have some [limitations](supported-features.md#cpflink-vs-oss). Executing SQL queries wrapped in JAR files as CMF Applications provides all of the features of Flink SQL and provides an alternative to CMF Statements. CMF executes an application by running its Flink job on a Flink cluster that is started in the Kubernetes namespace of the application’s environment. Every application runs on its own cluster, providing isolation between all applications. An application inherits its Kubernetes cluster from the environment it belongs to. Because environments can target any cluster registered with CMF, applications run on any Kubernetes cluster in the fleet, not only the cluster where CMF runs. For more information, see [Manage Multiple Kubernetes Clusters in Confluent Manager for Apache Flink](../../configure/kubernetes-clusters.md#cmf-kubernetes-clusters). CMF applications can be created and managed with CMF’s [REST API](../../clients-api/rest.md#af-rest-api), the [Confluent CLI](../../clients-api/cli.md#cmf-flink-cli), and [Confluent for Kubernetes](../../clients-api/flink-cfk.md#cmf-cfk). See the following topics to learn more about CMF applications: - [Create Applications](create.md#cmf-create-apps) - [Manage Applications](manage.md#cmf-manage-apps) - [Track Application Instances](application-instances.md#cmf-application-instances) - [Track Application Events](events.md#cmf-events) - [Package Flink Jobs](packaging.md#cmf-package) - [Run Flink Agents](flink-agents.md#cmf-flink-agents) - [Features and Support](supported-features.md#cpflink-vs-oss) ## Related content - [Configure Environments in Confluent Manager for Apache Flink](../../configure/environments.md#cmf-environments) - [Manage Multiple Kubernetes Clusters in Confluent Manager for Apache Flink](../../configure/kubernetes-clusters.md#cmf-kubernetes-clusters) - [Confluent Manager for Apache Flink](../../concepts/cmf.md#cmf)