Kubernetes has become the standard for container orchestration. Every major cloud provider offers a managed Kubernetes service that handles control plane operations, leaving teams to manage worker nodes and workloads.
Why Managed Kubernetes
Running Kubernetes yourself requires managing etcd, API servers, schedulers, and controller managers — plus keeping them upgraded and highly available. Managed services hand that off to the provider, typically at no charge for the control plane.
AWS EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)
- Control plane managed and highly available across 3 AZs
- Worker nodes: EC2 (self-managed), managed node groups, or Fargate (serverless)
- Deep integration with AWS services: IAM for RBAC, ALB ingress, EBS/EFS for storage
- EKS Anywhere: run EKS on-premises
- Consideration: More configuration required than GKE; IAM integration adds complexity
Azure AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)
- Free control plane (you pay for worker VMs only)
- Integration with Azure Active Directory for cluster authentication
- Azure CNI for pod networking with VNet integration
- GitOps with Flux built in
- Consideration: Historically slower to adopt upstream Kubernetes versions; improved recently
GCP GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine)
- The most mature managed Kubernetes — Google created Kubernetes
- Autopilot mode — fully managed nodes, pay per pod not per node
- Standard mode offers full node control
- Release channels for automatic version management
- Workload Identity for secure pod-to-GCP-service authentication
- Consideration: Autopilot mode has some restrictions on pod configurations
Comparison Summary
| Feature | EKS | AKS | GKE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control plane cost | .10/hr | Free | Free (Standard), Free (Autopilot) |
| Serverless nodes | Fargate | Virtual Nodes | Autopilot |
| Kubernetes maturity | Strong | Good | Best |
| IAM integration | AWS IAM | Azure AD | Workload Identity |
| Upgrade automation | Manual/managed | Auto-upgrade | Release channels |
Alternatives
- OpenNebula — includes Kubernetes cluster provisioning for private cloud environments
- DigitalOcean DOKS — simpler managed Kubernetes for smaller workloads
- OCI Container Engine — competitive option for Oracle shops