Kubernetes Clusters-as-a-Service

Provide developers, cloud operations, and all cloud users with self-service access to Kubernetes clusters using proven templates with guardrails included.

.webp)

Why Clusters-as-a-Service?

Modern applications require modern orchestration in the form of Kubernetes. Enterprises that streamline the process of setting up Kubernetes clusters by providing self-service access for developer and cloud operation teams gain significant benefits.

Increase Deployment Velocity

Deployments are 4x faster when clusters are available on demand vs. submitting tickets and waiting for infrastructure.

Simplify Cluster Management

The reuse of templatized clusters with policy built-in reduces ongoing management overhead.

Reduce Cognitive Load

When you free your developers from calling operations teams you pave the way for them to deliver true value to your business.

Unique Rafay Capabilities for Clusters-as-a-Service

Dozens of enterprise platform teams leverage these unique features to rapidly build cluster-as-a-service automation with Rafay and delight their developers.

K8s Lifecycle Management

• Multi-cloud & distro K8s: Support for running clusters in the cloud and on-premise
• Provisioning Anywhere: Provisioning support for AWS (EKS), Azure (AKS), GCP (GCP), OCI, Bare Metal (Upstream Kubernetes) and Edge (Upstream Kubernetes)
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Support for TF or GitOps first approaches Support for private Git repos
• Automated K8s Upgrades: Ability to orchestrate Node OS upgrades (e.g. AMIs) in a phased manner across the fleet of clusters
• Disaster Recovery: Ability to do a backup/restore of Control Plane configuration (in the case of an unmanaged K8s distro) + Data Plane (for stateful applications)
• Audits: Logging “who did what?” + exporting audits to an external system (e.g. Splunk, Datadog) necessary to demonstrate compliance

Developer Self-Service

• Flexible User Interfaces: Ability to consume the platform through the preferred interface: UI, Backstage, GitOps or CMDBs (e.g. ServiceNow)
• Simple Process for Compute: No time-consuming ticket driven process where the Platform team has to manually provision clusters
• Visualization of Resources: Ability for end users to quickly look at resources in the clusters and perform operations via the UI.
• Streamlined Kubectl Access: Do not mandate VPNs or needing to go through a bastion etc.

Add-On Lifecycle Management

• Installation of Add-ons: Ensure that clusters are always born with the right set of add-ons
• Automated Add-on Updates: Support for a staged rollout model for updating add-ons across clusters
• Version Control for Add-ons: To ensure that only blessed versions of add-ons can be used and older versions can be retired/made unavailable

Multi-Tenancy

• Platform to Support Multiple Teams: Central platform that can deliver “cluster as a service” to multiple teams within the organization
• Curated List of Cluster Templates: Workflows to centrally define templates and share templates selectively with downstream users

Governance

• Just in Time User Kubectl Access: Implementing K8s RBAC at scale with company’s IDP as source of truth without the need to implement expensive solutions
• Compliance Benchmarks: Ongoing scans against benchmarks such as CIS, NSA hardening recommendations etc.
• Policies: Centralized enforcement of policies for security, reliability and operational efficiency.

Download the Templates

More downloadable templates are coming soon. So, to get started providing self-service access to clusters in your enterprise, talk to us about one of the templates below.

CaaS on GCP

CaaS on vCluster

CaaS on Azure

Whitepaper

Hybrid Cloud Meets Kubernetes

Learn how to Streamline Kubernetes Ops in Hybrid Clouds with AWS & Rafay

Joe Vaughan, Chief Technology Officer, MoneyGram

Want to Start Now?

See for yourself how the Rafay Platform delivers the automation developers and operations want with the workflow automation platform engineering teams need!