This article examines the different routes organisations can take to adopt Kubernetes and how selecting the right strategy can lay the groundwork for sustained growth
For organisations looking to scale, the journey to Kubernetes isn’t a straightforward leap; it’s an evolution. Many start their cloud journey with a simple virtual machine setup, only to find that as workloads grow, so do complexity and costs. Running applications at scale requires more than just cloud hosting; it demands automation, efficiency, and resilience.
Kubernetes has become the gold standard for orchestrating workloads at scale, but getting there is a process. Not every organisation is ready to deploy a fully managed Kubernetes cluster from day one. Some need a gradual, structured approach to containerisation, allowing them to scale at their own pace while ensuring security and cost efficiency.
The path to Kubernetes: Different ways to run containers before you get there
Jumping straight into Kubernetes can be overwhelming. Here are different ways businesses can run containers as stepping stones to a full Kubernetes implementation.
Containers on virtual machines: A simple approach is running containers on traditional virtual machines (VMs) using Docker or Podman. While this method provides some benefits, such as portability and ease of deployment, it lacks orchestration, making scaling and management challenging. This can be an acceptable starting point for small-scale applications, but it doesn’t address the challenges of modern operations.
Serverless containers (AWS Fargate, Azure Container Instances, Google Cloud Run): For teams that want to avoid managing infrastructure entirely, serverless container solutions offer a great alternative. Platforms like AWS Fargate, Google Cloud Run, and Azure Container Instances allow developers to run containerised applications without provisioning VMs or clusters. This is ideal for lightweight applications with sporadic workloads but might not be the most cost-effective.
Managed container services (ECS, Azure Container Apps, Google Cloud Run jobs): A step beyond serverless is using managed container services such as Amazon ECS or Azure Container Apps. These platforms provide some of the benefits of Kubernetes, such as scaling and load balancing, without the operational overhead. However, they often come with platform-specific constraints and don’t offer the complete flexibility of Kubernetes.
Kubernetes without the overhead (AKS, EKS, GKE, OpenShift, Rancher): For organisations ready to embrace Kubernetes but wanting a more streamlined experience, managed Kubernetes services like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) are ideal. These platforms handle much heavy lifting, such as cluster management and scaling, while allowing full control over workloads. This is often the best approach for teams looking to scale without building and maintaining complex Kubernetes infrastructure from scratch.
Kubernetes as the engine of scalable growth
Once an organisation is ready for Kubernetes, the benefits become apparent. Kubernetes allows applications to run seamlessly across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. Horizontal pod autoscaling ensures workloads dynamically adjust based on demand. Kubernetes automatically restarts failed containers, ensuring application uptime. The platform is supported by a vast tooling ecosystem, making deployment repeatable and automated. However, these benefits don’t come magically. Without the right approach, Kubernetes can introduce significant complexity. That’s why platform engineering expertise is crucial to success.
Cloud as an enabler, not a bottleneck
Moving to the cloud can be necessary for scalability, but it’s not a silver bullet. Many companies face common challenges when scaling Kubernetes in the cloud. Poor resource management can lead to unexpected bills. Misconfigurations in Kubernetes, such as overly permissive RBAC roles, exposed API servers, and insecure pod privileges, can create significant security risks, potentially allowing attackers to escalate privileges, exfiltrate data, or disrupt workloads. Without automation, managing Kubernetes clusters can become intensive. Organisations need a well-defined cloud and Kubernetes strategy backed by the best automation, security, and governance practices to avoid tripping on these.
Avoiding common scaling pitfalls
Scaling with Kubernetes requires more than just deploying clusters. Organisations must automate everything, ensuring that Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and GitOps are standard practice. Observability must be prioritised, with centralised logging, monitoring, and tracing using tools like Prometheus or Elasticsearch. Security should be embedded from the start, with policy-driven security, role-based access control (RBAC), and zero-trust networking forming the foundation of the architecture.
How to build for the future
A phased approach ensures organisations scale efficiently and avoid costly missteps. The first step is containerisation, which is adopting containers on VMs or serverless platforms. Next, using managed services like ECS, Azure Container Apps, or Cloud Run can simplify container orchestration. Once ready, moving to Kubernetes enables full orchestration and scaling. Organisations should then optimise for multi-cloud to prevent vendor lock-in and enhance resilience. Finally, adopting platform engineering practices can help reduce complexity by abstracting infrastructure concerns away from developers.
Why expertise matters: How frontier can help
At Frontier, we specialise in guiding organisations through the entire cloud-native journey. As a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), we have deep Kubernetes adoption and optimisation expertise across AKS, EKS, GKE, and OpenShift. Our team excels in cloud architecture and automation to ensure scalability and security. We implement cost optimisation strategies to prevent cloud sprawl and provide security and compliance solutions to meet regulatory requirements while scaling.
Whether starting with container or looking to optimise a large-scale Kubernetes deployment, we help you operate predictably and innovate safely. Our engineering philosophy ensures that whatever stage you’re at, your platform is secure, scalable, and cost-effective.
Organisations don’t need to go from zero to Kubernetes overnight. Understanding the different containerisation strategies and cloud-native best practices allows them to scale their platforms efficiently while avoiding costly missteps. Kubernetes is the enabler of modern, scalable applications–but only when implemented with the right strategy.
Frontier is here to help at every step, ensuring your cloud and Kubernetes journey is smooth, secure, and built for growth. If you’re ready to scale with confidence, let’s chat.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
