Likelihood to Recommend DO
Kubernetes is well-suited for: - deploying APIs - deploying workers - log collection and analysis (ie ELK stack) - deploying Helm charts and anything that can be mapped on to K8s concepts Less appropriate for anything requiring no public Internet access (ie VPC only). Less appropriate for anything requiring integration with the DO app platform via VPC, at the moment.
Read full review The Google
Kubernetes Engine clusters are very good at being a managed cloud K8s platform - lots of documentation, features, and updates are available. It's also newbie-friendly - for both administrators and developers. Unfortunately, currently, it cannot reach true zero scale - thus, costs (rent for the service) are still involved even if you are barely using it. Thankfully, it's possible to have alternatives in Google Cloud:
Your own K8s cluster on Compute Engine VMs - you manage it completely; it will have access to a lot of Google Cloud services. Cloud Run cluster - less documented but more flexible Anthos clusters - you can use this service for a lot of types of K8s clusters - Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, on-prem, AWS, Azure Read full review Pros Hosted dashboard Hosted container registry Horizontal auto-scaling LetsEncrypt SSL termination Read full review Deployment of a new GKE cluster is really fast in comparison to other cloud providers. GCP is ahead other vendors and always provide the most up to date Kubernetes version. GKE automation for master upgrade and the worker nodes pool works really well. Read full review Cons Option for internal VPC-only deployment Better integration with cloud firewall Better integration with DO App platform via VPC Read full review Not as intuitive as it could be Documentation could be better, especially for people using other Google Cloud tools Not the preferred Kubernetes Engine for many apps Read full review Usability Google Kubernetes Engine has a good UI and documentation that facilitates setup and helps get projects moving along quickly Its built-in logging integrations with StackDriver make it easier to monitor the application and log issues quickly Automated orchestration, deployment, and scaling of nodes and networking are all easily configurable with yaml files Read full review Support Rating Very good
Kubernetes distribution with a reasonable total price. Integration with storage and load balancer for ingress and services speed up every process deployment.
Read full review Alternatives Considered DigitalOcean is the most affordable and straightforward of the hosted
Kubernetes options we evaluated. All features that we require are supported without an excess of complication of extraneous features. Straightforward billing is also very important for us in comparison to the Big Three cloud hosts, which have very complicated billing practices. DigitalOcean also provides a platform with very little vendor lock-in.
Read full review GKE spins up new nodes a LOT faster than AKS. GKE's auto scaler runs a lot smoother than AKS. GKE has a lot more
Kubernetes features baked in natively.
Read full review Professional Services When issues came up, we reached out to some folks at GCP and they seemed to be very prompt and attentive to our needs. They were always willing to help and provide additional details or recommendations or links to resources. This kind of support is very helpful as it allows us to navigate GKE with more confidence. Read full review Return on Investment Excellent uptime Low cost for provided value Good integration with the rest of the DO platform to provide additional value Read full review Positive: Allowed us to start and produce working software regardless of our experience level. Positive: Integration with other Google Cloud services that we wanted to use anyway. Negative: It's kinda clunky, and some scenarios seem Google Kubernetes Engine-specific instead of being more integrated with other Google Cloud services or the web UI. Read full review ScreenShots