Architectural Strategy
One of the most common pitfalls in containerization is completing the whole design in advance. Because a Kubernetes container platform has so many moving parts and edge cases, trying to design the perfect end-state architecture without PoC, experiments, or running (small) applications from the company on it is practically impossible. Instead, your strategy must be grounded in agile architecture.
The approach to success
To retain control over this complexity, leadership must require a practical approach:
- Start immediately with a Proof of Concept (PoC): Do not wait for a finalized blueprint. The dependencies between components are too complex to predict theoretically. You need a concrete, relevant PoC to validate your architecture against real-world constraints and discover edge cases early.
- Define requirements per component: There is no universal standard for storage or networking. You cannot rely on defaults and are dependent on the systems and methods the organisation already has. You must make a conscious, evidence-based choice for every single service based on your specific business needs.
- Find the “Build vs. Buy” Sweet Spot: You face a critical strategic choice in how you source the platform. The Complete Build requires a significant investment in FTEs but reduces software licensing costs. Full Service requires minimal FTEs but demands a high level of direct financial investment. The Hybrid consumes generic components as a managed service (commodity) but builds the business-critical, specific components in-house. This balances your talent investment with your operational expenditure. For most organisations, we recommend the Hybrid model to strike the best balance between using off-the-shelf solutions to deliver quickly and building the features and components that provide unique business value.
The ecosystem of containerization
Implementing Kubernetes gives you the core engine, but an engine alone cannot drive the business. To make the platform usable, secure, and observable, you must surround that core with a select ecosystem of services. It is about choosing the right stack to ensure stability, security, and speed.
The Observability Stack
You cannot manage what you cannot see. In a distributed container environment, traditional monitoring often fails. To gain true insight, we recommend using tools such as kube-prometheus-stack for monitoring. Its implementations are stable and widely adopted, backed by SUSE. For deeper application insights, the OpenTelemetry Stack has become the standard for tracing, enabling your teams to visualize request flow across services.
For logging, the Elastic Operator provides a powerful, integrated solution. However, from a resource-planning perspective, leadership should be aware that this solution consumes significant compute resources and has its own licensing model, rather than adding to the kube-prometheus-stack.
The Deployment Pipeline
Application automation within a cluster aligns with the CI/CD concept in software development. Where you continuously integrate your changes and deploy them to the customer environment in a controlled and reliable fashion. The modern standard for continuous deployment on Kubernetes is ArgoCD. It facilitates “GitOps,” where your infrastructure and application definitions are stored in code repositories. ArgoCD is highly flexible, handling standard Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and Kustomize files, serving as an automated bridge between your developers’ code and the production environment. There are alternatives like Flux, but they offer far fewer features and no UI or API for monitoring and interacting with deployments.
Networking
While the underlying infrastructure has a network by design, this differs from the networking within a container cluster. This virtual network is configured the same way as the deployments and spans the entire cluster. Cilium is widely regarded as the modern standard, independent of the platform your infrastructure runs on. It provides high-performance connectivity and acts as a “service mesh”, offering your team granular control from the start of a connection/packet until it lands at the destination in the cluster. If you run your infrastructure on a primary cloud provider such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, you should consider using the native cloud networking tools for their ease of use and interoperability with other services from the same provider.
Security
Because container clusters are configured uniformly, security setup can be standardized and integrated across all processes and components of the cluster. Tools like the OpenShift Compliance Operator enable continuous, automated compliance checks against standards. For broader cloud compliance (e.g., PCI DSS), commercial tools like Wiz provide robust monitoring across the cluster and broader cloud resources. At the same time, it can appear to be a cost center with no direct benefit. Because of the complexity and deep integration of the system, security becomes even more complex and practically impossible without tools assisting the (security) engineers.
Storage
Last but not least, the state of the cluster and application needs to be stored somewhere. A component with native Kubernetes container platform integration that delivers storage is required. However, this depends heavily on the infrastructure and application requirements. If running on a public cloud, it is strategic to leverage native OCI Storage first. For a more agnostic approach, Ceph (via Rook) offers a robust, scalable solution that runs natively within the cluster. But make sure you first understand the application requirements for the cluster, such as storage type, replication, latency, capacity, and transfer speed.
Operational and Resource Costs
An platform like this comes with own set of operational and resource costs that an organisations needs to account for. This ranges from the systems, like machines and computer, storage and networking to software licenses required to operate te platform. But also the time spend building and maintaining te platform. Compared to traditional platforms some of these costs can be hidden or quite complex.
The Hidden Cost of the Ecosystem
Leadership must be aware that the necessary ecosystem surrounding Kubernetes impacts resource planning significantly. Choices in observability and security are not just technical details; they are line items in your budget.
For instance, while a solution like the Elastic Operator provides powerful, integrated logging, it consumes significant compute resources and carries its own licensing model. This contrasts with lighter, open-source alternatives like the kube-prometheus-stack. Similarly, security tools like Wiz or the OpenShift Compliance Operator can appear to be cost centers with no direct revenue benefit. However, given the complexity of the system, security is practically impossible without them. These tools are not optional add-ons; they are essential operational expenses required to keep the engine running.
The costs of Automation
Transitioning to an “everything-as-code” approach imposes an initial time penalty. Designing processes where every configuration is reproducible via code takes longer than performing a quick manual fix. However, this is an investment, not a loss. Manual changes in a container platform are more risk than reward. While embedding automation into the workflow incurs a cost initially, it pays off in the medium to long term by preventing the technical debt that makes future changes risky and expensive. Organisations who do not invest early in automation can also become stuck in a backlog full with work that is necessary because of the technical depth incurred not automating the platform or bugfix.
Calculating the Real TCO
This is where the value of ready-to-go platforms from cloud or service providers must be weighed carefully. On paper, their offerings can look like a significant continuous investment. However, managing the platform yourself requires a heavy investment in man-hours and high-level skills.
If your team lacks the deep expertise to resolve complex kernel or networking issues, the cost of downtime and inefficiency will quickly outstrip the cost of a managed service. Our advice is to take the full Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the solution and plot it out: compare the monthly sticker price of a supported solution against the internal man-hours, recruitment costs, and risk exposure required for self-management. An assessment from an experienced provider like SUE can make these TCO as complete as possible.
The Burden of Maintenance
Finally, cost is not just about money; it is about capacity. The project does not end when the platform goes live. Dependencies like networking and storage are interconnected; an update to one area can introduce “breaking changes” to another. So you need set you strategy for maintaining the platform and prevent short-term savings impacting the long-term sustainability of the platform and a costly architecture and deployment of the container platform because of unsupported or unmaintainable systems that have not been taken care of.
Investing in the Learning Curve
It is unrealistic to assume your current IT team can simply “pick up” Kubernetes on the side. The learning curve is steep and complex. This software will eventually be used by almost everyone in your IT organization, and a lack of knowledge can lead to the continued use of old methods when deploying new systems designed differently.
For everyone in the IT organisation, an introductory course (e.g., Linux Foundation’s intro) is required to speak the same language. For developers, specialized training focused on application development (CKAD) is recommended. For administrators, a Deep-dive technical training for cluster management (CKA) is required to support users and administer the system. For security personnel, advanced training for securing the container supply chain (CKS) is recommended to align their skills to the new Kubernetes container platform. These certificates focus on Kubernetes, the industry’s most widely used container platform. It also covers the core concepts used in other tools, such as Apache Mesos and HashiCorp Nomad.
Even for people outside the IT organisation, the realisation that the platform and methods will change (from a virtual machine you can log in to a Kubernetes container platform, for example) is important and worth spending time on with the organisation.
Automation and “as Code”
With the added complexity and interdependence of the components in a containerized platform, manual changes are more risk than reward. Everything in container platforms is defined as a configuration, which means every manual action generates a configuration you can automate. So there should be no excuse. If a configuration cannot be reproduced via code, it shouldn’t exist. Your processes must be designed for an “everything-as-code” approach to ensure traceability and reproducibility. Embedding automation into the workflow may incur a time penalty initially, but it will pay off in the medium to long term for complex systems.
Continuous Operations
Many organizations underestimate the operational reality of a Kubernetes container platform. The project does not end when the platform goes live. That is simply when the real work begins. Maintaining this environment is a critical, continuous process that requires a shift in how your teams operate.
This is also where the value of ready-to-go platforms from public cloud and SaaS providers comes in. While their offerings can look like a continuous significant investment, managing the platform yourself costs a low number of (man)hours, especially when you don’t have their skill, in which you can split the cost. Our advice is to take the full TCO of the solution and plot it out for self-management versus buying a supported solution.
Just like the platform upkeep, the dependencies determined previously, like networking and storage, are interconnected in the platform. An update to one area can introduce “breaking changes” to another. Planning updates based on the software component provider’s schedule is essential to avoid being stuck in systems that cannot be upgraded.
Bridging the Gap Between Teams
Perhaps the biggest threat to operational success is not software, but silos. Effective maintenance requires a unified effort between Development and Operations. If these teams work in isolation, the feedback loops are broken.
Leadership must understand the organizational impact of this architecture. If strict barriers exist between teams, the maintenance process will become a bottleneck. Each update cycle will impose a heavy, unsustainable burden on the operations team. To succeed, you must foster a culture where development and operations share responsibility for the platform’s health, ensuring the system’s complexity does not slow the business’s pace.
Conclusion
Adopting a Kubernetes container platform is not merely a technical migration but a strategic reorganization of your IT landscape. While the technology itself is complex the true determining factors of success lie beyond the code.
Realizing the full value of Kubernetes requires not only technical excellence but also strategic management. It demands an honest calculation of Total Cost of Ownership that accounts for hidden operational costs alongside a culture that embraces everything-as-code. If you treat this as a simple infrastructure upgrade without addressing the operational difficulties or culture change you risk building a costly legacy system.
Ultimately a Kubernetes platform is not a set and forget platform. It is a living engine that demands strict tuning, attention and strategic oversight. By balancing the technical ecosystem with human capability your organization can turn this complex platform into a competitive advantage. This secures not just a modern platform but a future-proof foundation for delivering value fast.
Take the Next Step
Navigating the Build vs Buy decision and calculating the true TCO of a container platform can be daunting and complex. You should not have to navigate this complexity alone, but be supported by a party with experience in container platforms. Get a clear view of your path forward with an Assessment. Whether you are just starting your journey or looking to optimize an existing environment our experts can help you validate your architecture. We help uncover hidden costs and design a strategy that aligns with your specific business goals. Contact us today to schedule your Container Platform Assessment.
