Upgrades Before Extended Support · GitOps Deployments · Security Policies · Honest Fit Assessment
Managed Kubernetes for EKS, GKE and AKS Clusters
Your cloud provider runs the Kubernetes control plane, but upgrades, nodes, security, deployments and costs are still yours. We manage your EKS, GKE or AKS clusters in your own account.
What Are Managed Kubernetes Services?
Managed Kubernetes services are the ongoing operation of Kubernetes clusters by a specialist team: designing and setting up clusters, upgrading Kubernetes versions, managing nodes, networking, ingress and storage, securing workloads, deploying applications, monitoring, scaling, controlling costs and responding to incidents. They let product teams use Kubernetes without becoming Kubernetes experts.
Codersarts provides managed Kubernetes services for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), DigitalOcean Kubernetes and self-managed clusters. We run your clusters in your own cloud account, keep them upgraded and secure, and help your developers deploy reliably. We will also tell you honestly when a simpler platform would serve you better.
Cloud providers run the Kubernetes control plane. Almost everything else in the cluster is still your responsibility. We take that responsibility on.
Managed Kubernetes at a Glance
Question | Answer |
|---|---|
Platforms | Amazon EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, self-managed clusters |
Core work | Cluster setup, version upgrades, nodes, networking, ingress, storage, security, deployments, monitoring, costs, incidents |
Tooling | Helm, Kustomize, Argo CD, Flux, Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana, cert-manager, external-dns, Karpenter |
Deployment model | GitOps or CI/CD pipelines from your repositories |
Security | RBAC, network policies, Pod Security Standards, image scanning, secrets management |
Pricing | Monthly management through Managed DevOps from $1,000 per month; setup and migrations quoted after assessment |
Ownership | Clusters, configuration repositories and cloud accounts stay with your company |
What Your Cloud Provider Manages, and What It Does Not
Responsibility | Cloud provider (EKS, GKE, AKS) | You, or Codersarts as your managed Kubernetes team |
|---|---|---|
Control plane availability | Provider | Not needed |
Kubernetes version upgrades | Provider offers upgrades | Planning, testing add-ons and workloads, and running the upgrade |
Worker nodes | Provider supplies machines; managed node groups help | Node sizing, upgrades, autoscaling and node images |
Networking and ingress | Basic networking | Ingress controllers, load balancers, DNS, certificates, network policies |
Add-ons | Some managed add-ons | Version compatibility, configuration and upgrades |
Security | Control plane security | RBAC, workload security, image scanning, secrets and policies |
Deployments | Not included | Pipelines, GitOps, rollout strategies and rollback |
Monitoring and logging | Basic metrics | Full monitoring, alerting and log management |
Costs | Billing | Right-sizing, autoscaling and waste reduction |
Incidents | Control plane only | Investigating and resolving workload and cluster issues |
Kubernetes Version Upgrades
Kubernetes releases about three minor versions per year, and each is supported upstream for roughly 14 months. Managed services follow similar timelines. On Amazon EKS, for example, each version receives 14 months of standard support, followed by extended support at a much higher cluster fee: the cluster price rises from $0.10 to $0.60 per hour. Clusters that fall behind therefore become both riskier and more expensive.
We plan upgrades as routine work:
Check deprecated APIs in your manifests and Helm charts before each upgrade.
Upgrade add-ons such as ingress controllers, CNI plugins and cert-manager to compatible versions.
Upgrade a non-production cluster first and test your workloads.
Upgrade the control plane, then node groups one at a time with workloads drained safely.
Verify application health, metrics and logs after each step.
What Our Managed Kubernetes Services Include
Area | What we do |
|---|---|
Cluster design and setup | Cluster, node groups, networking, ingress, storage and access built with infrastructure as code |
Upgrades | Kubernetes, node image and add-on upgrades planned and executed |
Node management | Instance types, autoscaling with Cluster Autoscaler or Karpenter, spot instances where suitable |
Ingress and certificates | Ingress or Gateway API controllers, load balancers, DNS automation and automatic TLS |
Storage | Persistent volumes, storage classes, snapshots and backups |
Deployments | Helm charts, Kustomize, GitOps with Argo CD or Flux, rolling and canary releases |
Security | Role-based access control, network policies, Pod Security Standards, image scanning, secrets |
Monitoring | Prometheus, Grafana, alerting, log collection and dashboards per service |
Backups | Cluster configuration and persistent data backed up with tools such as Velero |
Cost management | Right-sizing requests and limits, autoscaling and removing idle resources |
Incident response | Investigating failing pods, crash loops, scheduling problems and cluster issues |
Reporting | Monthly report on versions, incidents, capacity and costs |
Do You Actually Need Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is powerful, but it adds complexity and cost. Many products run more reliably and cheaply on simpler platforms.
Situation | Kubernetes a good fit? | Simpler alternative |
|---|---|---|
One or two services with steady traffic | Usually not | A managed server, Docker Compose or a container service |
Several services with independent scaling needs | Often yes | Amazon ECS or Google Cloud Run may still be simpler |
Many teams deploying many services | Yes | Kubernetes provides a consistent platform |
Strict portability across clouds | Often yes | Kubernetes reduces provider lock-in |
Heavy batch, machine learning or GPU workloads | Often yes | Managed batch or ML platforms are alternatives |
If Kubernetes is not the right fit, we will recommend a simpler platform, and our Managed DevOps service can run it.
Kubernetes Security Practices
Least-privilege RBAC for people, pipelines and workloads, with no shared cluster administrator credentials
Network policies that limit which services can talk to each other
Pod Security Standards that block privileged containers and unsafe settings
Image scanning in the pipeline and admission rules for trusted images
Secrets management with cloud secret stores or tools such as External Secrets, rather than plain values in manifests
Private clusters or restricted API endpoints where possible
Audit logging of cluster changes
GitOps and Deployments
With GitOps, the desired state of your cluster lives in a Git repository, and a tool such as Argo CD or Flux keeps the cluster in sync with it. Every change is reviewed in a pull request, every deployment is traceable, and rolling back is as simple as reverting a commit. We set up GitOps or pipeline-based deployments to fit your team, with rolling, blue-green or canary releases and automatic rollback when health checks fail.
Kubernetes Cost Optimisation
Kubernetes clusters often waste money through oversized resource requests, idle nodes and forgotten environments. We review:
Resource requests and limits compared with actual usage
Node utilisation and autoscaling behaviour
Spot or preemptible nodes for workloads that can handle interruption
Idle namespaces, test clusters and unattached volumes
Load balancers and data transfer charges
Extended support fees from clusters running old Kubernetes versions
For a full cloud cost review, see our Cloud Cost Audit.
Common Kubernetes Problems We Fix
Pods stuck in CrashLoopBackOff, Pending or ImagePullBackOff states
Out-of-memory kills from missing or wrong resource limits
Failed upgrades blocked by deprecated APIs or incompatible add-ons
Certificates that fail to renew and break ingress
Noisy or missing alerts, with no clear view of service health
DNS and networking issues between services
Clusters set up by hand with no infrastructure code or documentation
Migrating to or Between Kubernetes Platforms
We containerise applications, move workloads from virtual machines to Kubernetes, and migrate between EKS, GKE, AKS and self-managed clusters with infrastructure as code, staged cutovers and rollback plans. Database and stateful workloads are planned with extra care, often moving to managed database services instead of running inside the cluster. See Cloud Migration for multi-system moves.
Autoscaling and Capacity
Kubernetes can scale both workloads and infrastructure, but only when it is configured correctly. We set up:
Mechanism | What it scales | When it helps |
|---|---|---|
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler | Number of pods for a service | Traffic that rises and falls during the day |
Vertical Pod Autoscaler or request tuning | CPU and memory reserved per pod | Services with poorly sized requests |
Cluster Autoscaler or Karpenter | Number and type of nodes | Clusters with varying total demand |
Scheduled scaling | Capacity at known times | Predictable peaks such as business hours or campaigns |
Correct resource requests are the foundation of all of these. Without them, autoscaling makes poor decisions and costs rise.
Multi-Environment and Multi-Tenant Clusters
Teams often run development, staging and production on the same cluster, or host several customers on shared infrastructure. We separate them safely with namespaces, resource quotas, network policies and access controls, or recommend separate clusters where the risk justifies the cost. Production always gets the strictest controls, and changes reach it only through reviewed pipelines.
What Your Monthly Kubernetes Report Shows
Cluster and add-on versions, with upcoming end-of-support dates
Incidents and failed deployments, with causes and fixes
Resource usage compared with requests, and right-sizing opportunities
Cost trends per cluster and namespace
Who Managed Kubernetes Services Are For
Teams already running Kubernetes without a dedicated platform engineer
Companies with clusters falling behind on versions and facing extended support fees
SaaS products with many services that need consistent deployments and scaling
Organisations inheriting clusters from previous teams with little documentation
Teams deciding whether to adopt Kubernetes who want an honest assessment
How We Take Over Your Clusters
Access. You grant a named role in your cloud account and cluster.
Cluster review. We check versions, add-ons, node groups, networking, security, deployments, monitoring, backups and costs.
Report and roadmap. You receive risks, quick wins and an upgrade plan.
Codify. Cluster configuration is captured in infrastructure as code and Git.
Stabilise and monitor. Alerts, dashboards and backups are put in place.
Ongoing management begins, with monthly reporting.
Working With Your Developers
We keep Kubernetes approachable for your developers: standard Helm charts or templates for new services, clear deployment workflows, dashboards for each service and short guides for common tasks such as viewing logs, checking rollouts and rolling back. Developers can ship without learning every detail of the cluster, while infrastructure changes stay reviewed and controlled.
Backup and Disaster Recovery for Clusters
Cluster configuration should be rebuildable from Git and infrastructure as code. Persistent volumes and stateful data are backed up separately with tools such as Velero or cloud snapshots, and restores are tested on a regular schedule in a separate namespace or cluster. We keep a written runbook for rebuilding a cluster in another region if needed. See Backup and Disaster Recovery.
Managed Kubernetes Pricing
Cluster Assessment and Setup
Reviews, new cluster builds, upgrades of clusters several versions behind and migrations are estimated after assessment and charged at $50 per hour, only with your approval.
Monthly Managed Kubernetes
Through Managed DevOps, starting at $1,000 per month
Version, node and add-on upgrades
Security, monitoring, alerting and backups
Deployment pipeline and GitOps maintenance
Cost reviews and capacity planning
Incident response with defined response times
The monthly fee depends on the number of clusters, services and environments, and is confirmed after assessment.
Add-ons
24/7 critical incident cover: $250 per month
Cloud and tool costs are paid directly to providers.
What Is Not Included
Cloud, cluster and tool subscription charges
Application feature development
Hosting clusters in Codersarts-owned accounts
Guaranteed availability beyond what the agreed cluster design supports
Frequently Asked Questions
What are managed Kubernetes services?
They are ongoing operation of Kubernetes clusters by a specialist team, covering setup, upgrades, nodes, networking, security, deployments, monitoring, costs and incident response.
Is EKS, GKE or AKS already fully managed?
No. The provider manages the control plane, but upgrades, nodes, add-ons, security, deployments, monitoring and costs remain your responsibility unless a team manages them.
How often should Kubernetes be upgraded?
Kubernetes releases about three minor versions a year, each supported for around 14 months, so most clusters need upgrading at least two or three times a year.
What happens if a cluster falls behind on versions?
It stops receiving fixes and, on services such as Amazon EKS, moves to extended support with a much higher hourly cluster fee.
How much do managed Kubernetes services cost?
Monthly management runs through Managed DevOps from $1,000 per month, confirmed after assessment. Setup, large upgrades and migrations are charged at $50 per hour with your approval.
Do we need Kubernetes?
Not always. Many products run better on a managed server or a simpler container service. We recommend Kubernetes only when its benefits outweigh the added complexity.
Do you use GitOps?
Yes. We set up Argo CD or Flux where it fits, or pipeline-based deployments from your existing CI/CD tools.
Can you take over a cluster someone else built?
Yes. We review it, capture its configuration as code, fix urgent risks and document it before taking over management.
Run Kubernetes Without the Operational Burden
Tell us which Kubernetes platform you use, how many clusters and services you run and what is causing problems. We will review your setup and send an upgrade and management plan.