I use the solution to orchestrate different containers that need microservice architecture.
Senior FullStack Developer/Engineer/Architect at Capitbrok
A highly scalable and stable solution with an intuitive dashboard
Pros and Cons
- "The product’s dashboard is very intuitive."
- "The solution does not have a visual interface."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The product’s dashboard is very intuitive. The solution is very useful for monitoring.
What needs improvement?
The solution does not have a visual interface.
The solution could be improved by adding some visual drag-and-drop features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for the past three years.
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Google Kubernetes Engine
January 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little bit complex.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment can be done in one to three months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is a little bit expensive.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is cloud-based. There are more tools available that are more visually intuitive. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Competitive pricing and easy to set up, use, and scale
Pros and Cons
- "The feature that I like the most is the ease of use as compared to AWS. Its ease of use is very high, and I can quickly deploy clusters with a simple template."
- "Their documentation is a little here and there. Sometimes, the information is not clear or updated. Their documentation should be a little bit better."
What is our primary use case?
We have somewhere around 20 microservices that we need to deploy for our product. We are using Kubernetes Engine to deploy those 20 microservices.
What is most valuable?
The feature that I like the most is the ease of use as compared to AWS. Its ease of use is very high, and I can quickly deploy clusters with a simple template.
What needs improvement?
Their documentation is a little here and there. Sometimes, the information is not clear or updated. Their documentation should be a little bit better.
They have a good marketplace, but it is still evolving and is not as mature for some services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is pretty stable. I did not encounter any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In the last 10 months, scaling was easy. There is an auto-scaling feature where I can just provide them with how many nodes I require, or I can create custom node pools where, for particular applications, I can deploy certain nodes. I haven't had any issues with scalability.
We have four or five users. They are DevOps engineers. Only two users are the owners. They have deployed Kubernetes Engine, and they manipulate the workload. Its usage would be twice or thrice a week.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't encountered any issues so far, and I haven't raised any doubt with them. So, I haven't interacted with them. We are currently managing four or five projects with Kubernetes Engine. We haven't had any issues with any of them.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to set up. In AWS and other clouds, the support for Kubernetes is minimal, but in Google Cloud, it is much easier to set up. I would rate it a five out of five in terms of ease of setup.
What about the implementation team?
It was set up in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is competitive, and it is not expensive. It is almost competitive with AWS and the rest of the cloud solutions.
We are spending around 3K USD per month. There are four projects that are currently running, and each one is incurring a cost of around 3K USD.
For Kubernetes, the components have to be broken down into machine cost, storage cost, and application cost, if you are using any private applications or any images. If you look at the compute instances for GCP, there are hundred different tiers. For example, you have general-purpose E2 machines, then you have high-compute machines, and then you have the GPU machines for T4. Those are pretty standard compute instances. Kubernetes Engine is just a layer on top of these compute instances to control your entire microservices architecture.
I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing.
What other advice do I have?
I am yet to explore all of its features. I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Google
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Google Kubernetes Engine
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Google Kubernetes Engine. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior DevOps/Build Engineer at Dataart
Easy to control and manage containers at all levels and is easy to create CD
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup was very easy because it's like a Google platform as a service. It's just one button to set it up. The deployment took only a few minutes."
- "There are some security issues, but it might just be because we are not up to speed yet as much as we should be and so we haven't found it in the documentation yet. That's why I don't want to confuse this. Still, it could be a little bit easier to understand and implement."
What is our primary use case?
Kubernetes Engine is a platform that spins off applications so they can be run at scale at a high level.
We are currently migrating from on-premises to the cloud version.
How has it helped my organization?
First of all, it's easier to control and manage the containers at all levels. It becomes easy to create CD, or continuous delivery, and it's easier to scale.
What is most valuable?
Kubernetes Engines is easy to deploy and manage.
What needs improvement?
There are some security issues, but it might just be because we are not up to speed yet as much as we should be and so we haven't found it in the documentation yet. That's why I don't want to confuse this. Still, it could be a little bit easier to understand and implement.
They could also probably improve their monitoring features. We mostly don't use the graphical display. We use command lines, so this isn't a big issue for us.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Google Kubernetes for about half a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For me, Kubernetes Engines was pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a very scalable product. We are increasing our use because our customer has a lot of products and he wants to migrate out of the application to cloud. He will use Kubernetes to do this.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As I work with different customers, it was a customer decision. I have no choice. I used Amazon Container Services, ACS, before. It was not bad, but I like Kubernetes better.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy because it's like a Google platform as a service. It's just one button to set it up. The deployment took only a few minutes.
What other advice do I have?
Management and deployment of a lot of containers could be very easy. It saves us time.
I think Kubernetes is really a fast developing and easy to use platform.
I would probably rate it as nine out of ten since it does have a little bit of room for improvement.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Principal Enterprise Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
A tool that offers resilience and high availability but needs to improve its stability
Pros and Cons
- "On the tip of a command, you can scale in or scale out, and it offers every robust platform to implement DevOps processes for your automation solutions. The product fully supports the IaC concept."
- "The product's stability is an area of concern where improvements are required."
What is our primary use case?
I have deployed the solution as a service into my private cloud, as well as into Azure infrastructure.
Google Kubernetes Engine is useful for cloud-native business applications, especially microservices-based architectures since business applications require scalability and resilience and must be highly available. Typically, Google Kubernetes Engine is used to deploy business applications and also to manage the integrations with the cloud services. There are a lot of SaaS solutions as service offerings provided by the Google Cloud Platform, so it helps with the integration to compile the solutions in the business space or, basically, the cloud-native space.
What is most valuable?
Google is the founder of Kubernetes. Google invented Kubernetes platform, and then later on, at some point in time, they had open-source scripts. Since Google started offering open-source scripts, a lot of other players in the market have adopted the same strategy for their products. Google Kubernetes Engine made a late entry into the market, but the good part that I like about it is that you have a seamless way of creating highly scalable and highly available solutions with it. On the tip of a command, you can scale in or scale out, and it offers every robust platform to implement DevOps processes for your automation solutions. The product fully supports the IaC concept.
What needs improvement?
The product's stability is an area of concern where improvements are required. Google Kubernetes Engine needs to mature more to be able to offer more stability compared to its competitors like Amazon and Microsoft, which have allowed for aggressive growth due to the area covered in terms of offering the complimentary services offered around Kubernetes. Google is behind even though it offers a robust platform. Google needs to offer more intensive services to fulfill the needs of customers and serve as a one-box or one-stop solution that covers everything enterprises need. Google needs to evolve more in terms of the richness of the services offered.
For how long have I used the solution?
I haven't worked full-fledged with Google Kubernetes Engine. since I have used it from an experimentation perspective. It is mainly Kubernetes that I have worked for for more than three years. Google Kubernetes is basically a managed service, but Kubernetes 1.24 is what I have extensively used.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a six to seven out of ten.
My company's clients who use the solution are enterprise-sized businesses.
How are customer service and support?
I have no experience with the solution's technical support because I have not done any production-related work revolving around Google Kubernetes Engine. I believe that Google provides better technical support, but I don't have the relevant background to speak about it.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the product's initial setup phase a five or six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a difficult setup phase, and ten is an easy setup phase.
The concept revolving around Kubernetes is inherently complex when it comes to its setup phase. Kubernetes is not an easy domain to design and operate. The adoption of Kubernetes from a production perspective can be a bit of a complex task, not only for Google but for every other vendor in the world. The complexity is not much for a person who understands Kubernetes. With Google, considering its lack of maturity compared to the competitors, I will say the complexity during the setup phase may be a bit higher, based on which I rate the setup phase a six out of ten.
The solution is deployed on a public cloud by Google.
The solution can be deployed in a week since the major effort is in building the application, and getting the application to the production stage takes at least a week or so.
What was our ROI?
From an ROI perspective, the tool should be better, but since I have not done any production-grade application deployment on Google Kubernetes Engine, I won't be able to comment on the product's ROI part. As per my understanding, the overall Kubernetes ecosystem ensures a high ROI because it promotes the ability of a business, and that's what the platform is all about.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price. The product is competitively priced.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Google
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Deployer
Senior System Analyst at Evello System
A stable and flexible product with auto-scaling features
Pros and Cons
- "I am impressed with the product's output scaling."
- "I would like the solution to integrate with another Kubernetes product. I would also like it to monitor other platforms. It needs to also include scale-up container in the tool's next release."
What is most valuable?
I am impressed with the product's auto-scaling.
What needs improvement?
I would like the solution to integrate with another Kubernetes product. I would also like it to monitor other platforms. It needs to also include scale-up container in the tool's next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the product's scalability a seven out of ten. It can scale up automatically. My company has 5 users for the solution.
How are customer service and support?
We rely on technical support from USA or India since it is not available in the local area. It is very difficult to get support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used VMware's virtual machine before. We switched to the product since it offered flexibility and the ability to auto-scale.
How was the initial setup?
The product's setup is easy and I would rate it an eight out of ten. The deployment got completed in three hours. We relied on a DevOps engineer to complete the deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We did the solution's deployment in-house.
What was our ROI?
The solution is worth its money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten. The tool costs around 3000 dollars per month. There are no additional costs apart from these.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the product an eight out of ten.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Google
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Engineer at Deka Technology
Logs efficiently detects issues within a cluster but not a stable solution
Pros and Cons
- "The logs are important for detecting problems in our clusters."
- "t is not very stable."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for all applications.
What is most valuable?
The logs are important for detecting problems in our clusters. I use the fragment with this property, which is valuable.
What needs improvement?
The current version is quite good. However, a new version, 1.26, is not yet stable. GKE offers regular, stable, and rapid versions, but this one is being used for the rapid version and hasn't been thoroughly tested yet. I think DCP may be quicker in releasing more stable versions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Google Kubernetes Engine for two years. For SunTrust, we use version 1.21, which is old. But on ComMaster, we use version 1.24.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is not very stable, I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Around 30 users are using Google Kubernetes Engine in your organization.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support team is quite good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
We can't say the initial setup was easy, but it wasn't difficult either. The deployment process was pretty fast.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is average. For example, Tanzu Build Service is very expensive, but generally, it's okay. However, I understand that the on-to service is very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Team Lead at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
A solution for managing data workloads, but needs improved support
What is our primary use case?
The Google Kubernetes Engine is used for managing data workloads. As a part of the platform engineering team, we are uncertain about the specific data workloads running. Primarily, the application teams wanted to run specialized workflows, while the data engineering workflow preferred to opt for GKE. After a thorough evaluation of the different versions of the Kubernetes platform over a week, we informed the application teams about the available options. In case of confusion, we clarify the advantages and disadvantages of each feature. However, when the application teams express their preference for GKE, we support their decision, as they comprehensively understand the use cases for both EKS and GKE. This invariably leads to a smoother onboarding process, as we are well-equipped to cater to their specific requirements.
What is most valuable?
We are working and monitoring HTTPS on GKE. It has a great manager for license management. The controller policy item for that particular feature doesn't seem visible anywhere, which might be a bonus, but we are unfamiliar with it. As we explore the multiple flavors of Kubernetes clusters, we aim to enforce similar policies across all clusters. Overall, everything looks good, and hand tools are one of the unique features that set us apart from other vendors.
What needs improvement?
The solution's support is terrible. Even the GCP engineers have been tracing some concerns. The dedicated GKE support engineer often tries to find solutions when raised tickets. Support engineers don't know about it. Regarding AWS or Azure support, GKE support needs a lot of improvement. The documentation is another issue. Even though the support engineers keep referring to the documentation, it's not current because the cloud keeps evolving. They need to update the documentation frequently. The controller policy will be compatible with version 1.26 of Kubernetes. We assumed we needed to upgrade to 1.26 fast, as we were running 1.25. However, after spending two and a half months, we realized it works with 1.25 as well. Even the GCP engineers were not aware that it was compatible with 1.25.
Google Kubernetes Engine has a limited layer of support, and not many workloads are feasible. Some application teams need the Kubernetes platform. However, we can't recommend GKE, even though the cost would be lower than EKS and OpenShift. We can't trust GCP support when major issues arise.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Google Kubernetes Engine as an integrator for one year.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is relatively easy, but unfortunately, some issues repeat. For instance, we always try to showcase our capabilities during working sessions with vendors, like when they come for a demo or even with AWS. However, when we require assistance, the installation seems straightforward, yet when an issue arises, we struggle to resolve it. We're trying to schedule a working session with GCP, but they are unavailable. Despite multiple follow-ups, when they finally arrive, the experience is not very productive, as the person often searches for solutions. Overall, the installation process is smooth. If we stick to the application, it seems to be working fine.
We use Terraform. It will take some time, but the cluster installation on the Google Kubernetes Engine will be completed within four or five hours.
What other advice do I have?
I'm familiar with Kubernetes, but not many customers are using GKE. For instance, I've been involved in one project using GKE for about six to seven months; before that, another project used GKE for a year. However, I can only recall one project that used GKE for four months, about one and a half years ago. My work revolves around Kubernetes, but it's not exclusively focused on GKE.
The maintenance of the solution is at an intermediate level, as there are some issues. We encounter problems with the Ingress controller and the GKE clusters. We have some open cases with GKE and have been trying to find solutions. Some aspects seem easy, while others are challenging to troubleshoot. Moreover, the documentation lacks comprehensive recommendations for GKE; we often have to rely solely on Google's official documentation.
Overall, I rate the solution a five out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Head of Infra and Applications support department at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
An improvement over our traditional methods but additional security is required
Pros and Cons
- "Before using this solution, it was a lot of manual tasks and a lot of people participated in the process."
- "I think that security is an important point, and there should be additional features for the evaluation of data in containers that will create a more secure environment for usage in multi-parent models."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is to arrange the correct CICD (Continuous Integration / Continous Deployment) conveyor to provide for continuous changes in production.
How has it helped my organization?
The improvement is mainly connected to the speed of change implementation. In the case of the automatic convenor, we spent less time due to the automation of the process. Before using this solution, it was a lot of manual tasks and a lot of people participated in the process.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the horizontal staging of applications. Other important features include isolation of applications and more effective usage of infrastructure due to less consumption of resources by containers.
What needs improvement?
I think that security is an important point, and there should be additional features for the evaluation of data in containers that will create a more secure environment for usage in multi-parent models.
For how long have I used the solution?
One year (pre-production).
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not seen any signs of instability, and have an optimistic view of the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is an important feature of this solution, and we are happy with it.
We have approximately one hundred people using the solution. It is mostly developers and quality assurance people who are working on the preparation for CICD.
Once we move to production, next year, our usage will increase.
How are customer service and technical support?
I think technical support is good enough.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use an integrated solution prior to this. Rather, it was done in a more traditional way. This included virtual machine creation, installation of additional software, and connection to an external CICD conveyor, etc. We are switching because we are interested in more widely using continuous technology.
Our motivation for switching is to simplify creating a CICD process. We have a lot of small changes and after testing, we will be using an automated process for product delivery.
How was the initial setup?
We are currently in a test phase and are estimating the feasibility of moving this to production. Our plan is to finalize testing by the end of this year and move the solution to production at the beginning of next year.
We have two people working the maintenance of this solution, but frankly speaking, it is not enough. We are planning to improve our skills and capacity and expand these resources.
What about the implementation team?
We communicate directly with somebody who is part of OpenShift. They are top guys and have enough experience to help us build our system. It's no problem.
We do not have a local team in Russia, but at some point, that may change and we will use a local integrator.
What was our ROI?
We are planning to reach a positive ROI using this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are planning to use external support, and hire a commercial partner for it. Usually, this is about twenty percent of the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have been watching what is happening the market, and for some time it has been obvious that Kubernetes has the most followers and most potential. This is why we are starting with Kubernetes from the beginning.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is not to implement this solution unless there is a genuine demand for it from the business side. It can be useful to start from the bottom of the infrastructure and take it to the highest level because it requires changes in the development and business levels to work with this technology.
I think that there is enough documentation available to start to work with this product. The technology provides a very good opportunity to grow and improve.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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