Kubernetes

Overview

The table below provides a high-level overview of the Kubernetes cloud resources currently covered by our CloudOps service out of the box. While we've included a wide range of resources, we understand that your needs may vary. If a specific resource or service level tier isn't listed, we're open to customizing our offering to meet your requirements—though this would involve additional collaboration with you to make it happen. For example, adding Flux CD to the Gold tier would be something we could explore together. Adding additional monitoring solutions for clusters is another activity we could explore together.

Clicking on each resource will direct you to a subpage with detailed information about our responsibilities and what you'd manage as the customer. These details, including your responsibilities, are flexible and can be negotiated during the contract period to tailor our services to your business needs.

Key Differentiators

Feature	Bronze 🥉	Silver 🥈	Gold🥇
Monitoring Depth	Infrastructure	Infrastructure + Application Resource Requests	Infrastructure + Application Resource Request + Auto-scaling
Patching Frequency	N/A	On-Demand	Continuous
Compliance Automation	0%	50%	90%+
Self-Service Capabilities	None	Limited	Extensive
Platform Maturity Required	Low	Medium	High

Resource Coverage

Resource	Bronze 🥉	Silver 🥈	Gold 🥇
Continuous Delivery
Argo CD	✅	✅	✅
Flux	✅	❌	❌
Secrets Management
External Secrets Operator	✅	✅	✅
Cluster Ingress
Kubernetes Gateway API	✅	✅	✅
Certificate Management
Cert Manager	✅	✅	✅
DNS Record Management
External DNS	✅	✅	✅
Vulnerability Scanning
Trivy Operator	✅	✅	✅
Intrusion Detection
Falco Security	✅	✅	✅
Open Policy Enforcement
Gatekeeper	✅	✅	✅
Cluster Mesh
Istio (Ambient Mode)	✅	✅	✅
Istio (Sidecar Mode)	✅	❌	❌
Node Patch Management
Kured (Linux Only)	✅	✅	✅
Observability
Alloy (Grafana)	✅	✅	✅
Cost Insights
Vantage	✅	✅	✅
Pod Autoscaling
KEDA	✅	✅	✅

Service Tier Comparison

Service Area	Bronze 🥉	Silver 🥈	Gold 🥇
Best For	Legacy K8s clusters Undocumented environments	Clusters requiring routine maintenance Environments not ready for full automation	Modern cloud-native workloads Self-service platform requirements
Monitoring	24/7 infrastructure monitoring Kubernetes metrics (nodes, pods, resources) Grafana Cloud basic dashboards Infrastructure visibility only	All Bronze features Custom metrics collection Log aggregation and analysis	All Silver features Full observability stack SLO-based alerting Business metrics tracking Advanced analytics
Incident Response	Real-time incident notification Pod/node down alerts Kubernetes expertise during incidents Escalation via agreed channels e.g. Slack/Teams/Phone	All Bronze features Proactive issue detection Application failure analysis Automated restart policies Performance degradation alerts	All Silver features Predictive failure detection Automated remediation Self-healing capabilities
Maintenance & Patching	Customer managed No automation	Monthly node patching via Kured Helm chart updates Regular health checks Scheduled maintenance windows	Fully automated patching GitOps-driven deployments Canary releases Zero-downtime updates
Infrastructure Management	Manual/customer managed RBAC access for monitoring only	Partial automation Resource labeling Documentation in GitBook Defined responsibilities	Full Infrastructure as Code Helm Cluster API management Self-service provisioning
Compliance & Security	Basic monitoring Customer responsibility	Guided compliance Security recommendations Policy enforcement tracking Vulnerability scanning	CIS benchmark compliance Automated security hardening Compliance reporting Custom policy support Runtime security monitoring
Cost Optimization	Not included	Basic recommendations Resource utilization reports Vantage cost insights	Continuous optimization Quarterly reviews Multi-cluster cost allocation
Documentation	Basic setup docs Incident runbooks	Detailed runbooks Architecture documentation Responsibility matrix	Full platform documentation Self-service guides Automation playbooks
Customer Responsibilities	Cluster management Application deployment Backup management Application monitoring Incident response Log management	Deployment approval Config requirements Critical metrics definition App-specific support	Strategic direction Quarterly review participation Major change approval Business context
Playground Responsibilities	Monitoring setup Alert configuration Incident notification Access provisioning	All Bronze features Monthly patching Operator management Log collection Health checks	All Silver features Full lifecycle automation Platform operations Continuous improvement Cost optimization
Support Model	Reactive	Proactive + Reactive	Predictive + Automated
Automation Level	None	Partial (30-40%)	Complete (90%+)
Customer Effort Required	High	Medium	Low

Upgrade Paths

From → To	Timeline*	Key Requirements
Bronze → Silver	2-3 weeks	Operator deployment approval Maintenance window agreement Documentation review
Silver → Gold	4-6 weeks	Architecture modernization Automation readiness Team training GitOps implementation
Bronze → Gold	6-8 weeks	Full assessment required Phased migration approach Platform transformation CI/CD pipeline setup

*Based on a customer running 3-5 Kubernetes clusters with 50-200 workloads

---

For detailed pricing and custom requirements, please contact your Playground representative.