--- title: "Kubernetes and platform engineering" description: "Kubernetes design and operations, GitOps, internal developer platforms and golden paths, with security and cost controls built in." url: https://www.expandware.com/services/cloud/kubernetes-and-platform-engineering/ section: "Services" topics: ["Cloud", "Kubernetes", "Amazon EKS", "Azure Kubernetes Service", "Google Kubernetes Engine"] publisher: "Expandware Private Limited" --- # Kubernetes and platform engineering Kubernetes design and operations, GitOps, internal developer platforms and golden paths, with security and cost controls built in. A platform your engineers can ship on without asking permission. Platform engineering turns infrastructure into a product for your developers: a paved road that makes the secure, observable, cost-aware way to deploy the easiest way. We design and run Kubernetes clusters, GitOps delivery and the internal platform around them, so teams deploy in minutes through self-service while policy, security and spend stay under control. Where it usually starts: - Every team deploys differently, and every outage is investigated from scratch. - Kubernetes clusters were built quickly, and nobody is confident upgrading them. - Developers wait days for environments or access. - Container costs are growing, and nobody can attribute them. What is included: - Cluster design and operations: Managed or self-hosted Kubernetes, with upgrades, scaling and recovery planned. - GitOps delivery: Declarative deployments with Argo CD or Flux, drift made visible rather than discovered. - Internal developer platform: Templates, self-service environments and a developer portal. - Policy and security: Admission policies, image scanning, secrets and network policy by default. - Observability: Metrics, logs and traces wired into every service from its first deploy. - Cost allocation: Spend attributed to teams and services. Where it sits: The Kubernetes platform is where workloads run in the cloud architecture. This service builds and runs it, with the delivery paths and guardrails that let teams deploy onto it safely. Decisions to settle early: - Managed or self-hosted clusters. Managed services remove control plane work; self-hosting gives more control and suits some regulated or on premises estates. Most clients choose managed. - Argo CD or Flux. Both work well for GitOps. The choice follows your teams' preferences and existing tooling. - How much to standardize. Too little standardization keeps every team different; too much blocks legitimate needs. Golden paths cover the common case with room for exceptions. How the work runs: Assess, Delivery paths, clusters and pain points. Design, Platform architecture and golden paths. Build, Clusters, GitOps and self-service. Operate, Upgrades, support and improvement. How it is bought: - A fixed-fee assessment: We review your clusters, delivery pipelines and how developers get environments, and rank the pain points. You receive the findings and a fixed price for the platform build. - A fixed-price build: Standard clusters as code, GitOps delivery, golden path templates, policy and observability for the teams in scope, at a fixed price. - Running it afterwards: The platform is then run by your platform team or by us monthly, covering upgrades, support and the roadmap. Worked example, clusters nobody dared upgrade. Say a fintech's teams each built their own Kubernetes clusters, deploy in different ways and wait days for environments. The clusters are falling behind supported versions, and nobody is confident upgrading them. - Assess: We review how each team deploys, how the clusters were built and where developers lose time, and rank the pain points. - Design: A platform architecture with standard clusters, GitOps delivery and golden path templates is agreed with the teams that will use it. - Build: Clusters are rebuilt as code, services move to GitOps one team at a time, and policy and observability come with every deployment. - Operate: Upgrades follow a tested procedure, and a developer portal gives teams environments through self-service. At the end, every team deploys the same way, clusters are upgraded as routine, and a developer gets an environment without waiting on a ticket. (An illustration, not a client account.) What you have at the end: - Platform architecture and roadmap: The design of clusters, delivery, security and the developer platform, and the order in which it is built. - Clusters and platform as code: Clusters, add-ons and platform services defined in code, so they can be rebuilt and upgraded reliably. - Golden path templates: Service templates that come with pipelines, observability and security, so a new service starts right. - Security and policy baseline: Admission policies, image rules, secrets handling and network policy applied to every cluster. - Runbooks and upgrade procedures: How the platform is operated, how clusters are upgraded, and what to do when something breaks. Standards and platforms worked with: Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Azure Kubernetes Service, Google Kubernetes Engine, Argo CD, Flux, Backstage, Helm, Kyverno, CIS Kubernetes Benchmark. Where it goes wrong, and what we design out: - Clusters built by hand. A cluster nobody can rebuild cannot be upgraded with confidence. Everything is defined in code. - A platform nobody chose. Developers avoid platforms built without them. Golden paths are designed with the teams that use them. - Security added later. Policy bolted on after adoption breaks deployments. Admission rules and image checks are on from the start. What it changes: - Faster, safer delivery. Teams deploy through a tested path, so releases are routine rather than events. - Clusters you can upgrade. Upgrades are planned and rehearsed instead of postponed. - Guardrails by default. Security and cost policy apply automatically to every workload. How you will know it is working: - Cluster upgrades are routine and scheduled. - A developer gets an environment without raising a ticket. - Every service ships with metrics, logs and traces. - Container costs are attributed to the teams that incur them. Who you work with: - Platform architect. Designs clusters, delivery paths and guardrails with your teams. - Platform engineers. Build clusters, GitOps and templates as code, and run upgrades. - Developer experience lead. Works with product teams so the platform is the easiest way to deliver. What we need from you: - Access to current clusters and pipelines. - Representatives from the teams who will use the platform. - Your security and compliance requirements for workloads. - A first team willing to adopt the golden path. Common questions: Q: Do we need Kubernetes at all? A: Not always. For a handful of services, managed container platforms or serverless are simpler and cheaper to run. Kubernetes earns its complexity when many teams and services need a common, portable platform. Q: Managed Kubernetes or self-hosted? A: Managed services such as EKS, AKS and GKE remove control plane work and suit most organizations. Self-hosted clusters make sense on premises, at the edge, or where data must stay on your own hardware. Q: How do you secure clusters? A: With least privilege access, admission policies, signed and scanned images, network policies, secrets management and runtime detection, enforced by default rather than by convention. Q: What is an internal developer platform? A: A self-service layer over your infrastructure: templates, environments, deployment and observability that developers use without filing tickets, maintained by a platform team as a product. Q: What is GitOps? A: A way of operating in which the desired state of every cluster and application is held in a Git repository, and an agent such as Argo CD or Flux keeps the running state matched to it. Every change is a reviewed commit, and drift from the declared state is visible at once. Q: How do you upgrade Kubernetes clusters safely? A: By keeping clusters as code, testing each upgrade in a lower environment first, checking for deprecated APIs before they are removed, and upgrading node pools gradually so workloads move without interruption. Regular small upgrades are far safer than rare large ones. Q: How do you get developers to adopt the platform? A: By making it the easiest way to do the work. Golden paths are built with the teams that will use them, cover the common cases well and remove waiting. Adoption is measured, and the platform is treated as a product with its own roadmap and feedback. Q: Can you run stateful workloads such as databases on Kubernetes? A: It is possible and sometimes right, with operators designed for the database and storage that suits it. For many teams, though, a managed database service is simpler and safer, and we recommend that unless there is a clear reason to run it inside the cluster. Often paired with: DevOps and SRE, MLOps and model operations, Managed AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. --- Canonical page: https://www.expandware.com/services/cloud/kubernetes-and-platform-engineering/ Site index for machines: https://www.expandware.com/llms.txt Full site text: https://www.expandware.com/llms-full.txt Expandware Private Limited. Inquiries: solutions@expandware.com, +92 (333) 32 11011.