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IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service provides a fully managed version of powerful orchestration software
November 25, 2021

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service provides a fully managed version of powerful orchestration software

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

We had been using IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for a long time for all of our compute workloads. When we moved to containerized deployments at scale, we looked for an orchestration system that we could use as well. Kubernetes is the gold standard for container orchestration software and we decided to go with IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service since we use other IBM Cloud products.
  • Steep learning curve
  • Huge increase in scalability
  • Less overhead for maintenance equals more developer/admin time
  • Increase in availability do to flexibility of horizontal scaling
We mostly use the client APIs, but the GUI does look nice, especially for a less technical team.
We have not used these services.
Kubernetes was original formed by Google. We had a lot of compute in Google Cloud Platform and used to use their managed Kubernetes service Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and it performed quite well. I think both products are solid, but I lean toward GKE. However, I would opt for using whichever service is in the ecosystem of the other products I use due to the increased integration.
  • IBM Cloud Virtual Servers
  • IBM Cloud Container Registry
  • IBM Cloud Databases
Using multiple products within the same cloud ecosystem can be highly beneficial. Oftentimes, these products are built off of one another so there is a high level of integration between them. For example, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service works well with our databases that are apart of the IBM Cloud Databases collection.
Overall, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is a great managed solution of Kubernetes and it works quite well within the IBM Cloud ecosystem. Kubernetes is a powerful piece of container orchestration software and this managed version removes some of the overhead of maintain such a complex system. I'd recommend the product.
  • Online training
We received very little third party training so most of the learning was while implementing the solution.

Do you think IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service again?

Yes

I think IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is a solid product and it got the job done. However, the team decided to discontinue using it for various reasons outside of its effectiveness. I would use the product again based off of how well it fit our use case but we decided not to continue use.
Before ever considering using a managed service like Kubernetes Service, it should have already been decided that an orchestration service is necessary for the use case. Smaller systems have trouble benefitting from Kubernetes because of the added management and added overhead costs but Kubernetes Service is a great fit for a team looking for a managed version of Kubernetes to take some of the infrastructure management away from the process.