Kubernetes Consulting Services

When Kubernetes makes sense

Kubernetes is the industry-standard platform for running containerised applications at scale. It handles scheduling, scaling, self-healing and service discovery across many machines, and it works on every major cloud and on-premise.

It is also complex. Kubernetes pays off for organisations running many services, needing portability across environments or building internal platforms for several teams. For a single application, a managed container service is often simpler and cheaper — and we will tell you so.

Problems we solve

• Clusters set up quickly that are now hard to upgrade or secure
• Unexpectedly high cloud bills from over-provisioned nodes
• Deployments that are inconsistent between environments
• Limited visibility into what is running and why it fails
• A team spending more time on the platform than on the product

What’s included

Kubernetes consulting starts with a health check

For teams already running Kubernetes, a health check reviews cluster configuration, workload resource settings, security posture, observability, upgrade readiness and cost. You receive a prioritised list of improvements; many — such as fixing resource requests and enabling autoscaling — deliver savings or stability gains within days.

Platform engineering

Larger organisations increasingly build an internal developer platform on top of Kubernetes: golden-path templates for new services, self-service environments, standard observability and security baked in. This lets product teams deploy safely without becoming Kubernetes experts. We help design and build such platforms in proportion to your team size.

Managed Kubernetes options compared

Security essentials

• Role-based access control mapped to your identity provider
• Network policies restricting which pods can talk to each other
• Pod security standards preventing privileged containers
• Secrets from a vault or cloud secret manager, not plain manifests
• Image scanning and admission policies allowing only trusted registries
• Regular upgrades to stay within supported Kubernetes versions

Keeping costs under control

Kubernetes clusters often run at low utilisation because resource requests are guessed generously and never revisited. We measure real usage, set sensible requests and limits, enable cluster and pod autoscaling, use spot or preemptible nodes for tolerant workloads and add cost allocation by namespace so each team sees what it spends.

• Right-size requests based on observed usage
• Scale down non-production clusters outside working hours
• Consolidate small clusters where isolation is not required

What we typically deliver

Kubernetes or a simpler platform?

Kubernetes is powerful, but it brings real operational overhead. Before recommending it, we compare it with simpler managed options.

If a simpler platform fits, we will say so — the cheapest cluster to operate is the one you do not need.

Upgrades without drama

Kubernetes releases new minor versions regularly and each is supported for a limited period, so upgrades are a routine part of ownership rather than an occasional project. A planned process keeps them low-risk:

1. Check deprecations

   Scan manifests and Helm charts for APIs removed in the target version.

2. Upgrade non-production first

   Run the full test suite and watch workloads for a period before touching production.

3. Upgrade the control plane

   Follow the provider’s managed upgrade process.

4. Roll node pools

   Replace nodes gradually with disruption budgets protecting availability.

5. Update add-ons

   Ingress controllers, CNI, CSI drivers and operators to compatible versions.

Day-two operations checklist

• Resource requests and limits set for every workload
• Pod disruption budgets for services that must stay available
• Horizontal autoscaling based on meaningful metrics
• Backups of cluster state and persistent volumes, with restores tested
• Certificates and secrets rotated automatically
• Runbooks for common incidents such as node failure or crash loops
• Cost visibility per namespace or team

Common Kubernetes anti-patterns

• Running databases in the cluster without a strong reason and the skills to operate them
• One giant namespace shared by every team and environment
• Deploying with kubectl from laptops instead of a pipeline
• Images tagged “latest”, making rollbacks unpredictable
• Building a custom platform before using what the managed service provides

Each makes clusters harder to operate and more expensive. We help teams correct them gradually. Related services: infrastructure as code, site reliability engineering and microservices development.

Our cluster health check in detail

A health check gives you a clear picture of an existing cluster in one to two weeks. We review configuration, workloads, security and costs, then deliver a prioritised list of fixes.

Most findings can be fixed by your team; we can also implement them with you.

Multi-tenancy: sharing a cluster safely

When several teams share one cluster, isolation matters. We separate teams by namespace with their own roles, resource quotas and network policies, and use policy engines such as Kyverno or OPA Gatekeeper to enforce standards automatically. For workloads with strict isolation needs, separate node pools or separate clusters may be the better choice.

Handover and training

Kubernetes engagements end with your team able to run the platform confidently. We document architecture decisions and runbooks, pair with your engineers on real upgrades and incidents, and run practical sessions on debugging workloads, reading metrics and safely changing cluster configuration. Ongoing support is available, but the aim is independence rather than reliance on us.

Typical handover includes a runbook library, an architecture diagram, a recorded walkthrough and an agreed list of open improvements with owners.

We also leave a simple upgrade calendar so the next version change is planned well before support ends.

Related services

Kubernetes work connects with cloud-native development, CI/CD and SRE.

This page is part of Cloud & DevOps Services — see the full overview for related services, approach and pricing.