Introduction to Kubernetes

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

With the exception of perhaps Netflix and Spotify, no other company has as much experience running containers in production as Google. As the original creator of Kubernetes and a huge open-source contributor along with Redhat, GKE brings the best user experience and added features. Unlike Amazon EKS and AKS, on GKE, you can easily customize a GKE deployment in various node pools and in HA by clicking a few buttons. Like AKS, GKE only charges for VM usage and GKE generally comes out as the cheapest managed Kubernetes service of the three (factoring in Google’s automatic sustained usage discount).

Aside from lower cost, the main advantage of GKE will always be fast access to the newest features and tools. GKE dashboard—along with Stackdriver logging and monitoring agents already embedded on its VMs—allows for easy monitoring of cluster health and usage. GKE also auto-scales your nodes for you, which is a really nice feature that otherwise requires custom setup when on Amazon EKS and AKS—this feature is great for quick prototyping usage or load testing. Overall, GKE abstracts away a lot of the infrastructure setup, simplifying the onboarding experience for new users.

Ultimately, the downsides of GKE come not from the technology, but from the general lack of other tools and community support on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) itself. Whereas Amazon Web Services (AWS) boasts IAM and Microsoft Azure touts Active Directory, GKE has no real comparative product. In terms of enterprise support, GCP still lags behind AWS, whose obsession with customers led them to the top, and Microsoft Azure, whose roots in the Windows ecosystem enabled it to leverage deep ties to enterprise IT infrastructure.

Summary:

• Pros: Has the lowest cost, Kubernetes development is driven by deep experience, and provides access to the newest features
• Cons: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) usage is lowest amongst the big three cloud providers