# 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!