Google GKE
GKE is the most mature managed Kubernetes and Autopilot mode removes node management entirely. It is a good fit for teams that want the least operational surface area and are comfortable in Google Cloud.
We build GKE with Terraform, Workload Identity for secure access to Google services, and the GKE Gateway controller for ingress.
At a glance
| Modes | Standard, Autopilot |
|---|---|
| Networking | VPC-native, Dataplane V2 (Cilium) |
| Ingress | GKE Gateway, Ingress, Cloud Armor WAF |
| Identity | Workload Identity Federation |
What RackLedge does
- Cluster design and IaC
- Release channel and upgrade planning
- Observability with Cloud Monitoring and Managed Prometheus
- Cost control with committed use and Autopilot right-sizing
How we work
Every cluster we build starts from Git. Infrastructure as code creates the cluster, Flux or Argo CD reconciles everything inside it, and no change reaches production without a pull request. That is what makes a rebuild after a bad day a matter of hours instead of weeks.
Operations are the product: monitoring with alerts that mean something, backups of cluster state and persistent volumes, upgrades on a quarterly cadence and an on-call engineer who already knows the environment. We run production Kubernetes for our own platforms, so the runbooks are ones we use ourselves.
We are honest about fit. A handful of stable services on a couple of VMs does not need Kubernetes, and we will say so. Teams that ship weekly, need to scale or run many services get real value from it.
Related services
More on kubernetes
Frequently asked questions
Autopilot or Standard?
Autopilot for most application workloads. Standard when you need GPUs, specific node types or DaemonSets Autopilot restricts.
Need a hand with this?
Tell us what you are running and what is slowing you down. You get a straight assessment and a plan, with no obligation. Support desk is staffed 24/7.