Technologies · Kubernetes
Kubernetes consulting for startups
We set up, upgrade, and rescue production Kubernetes: EKS, GKE, and AKS clusters with autoscaling, GitOps deploys, and monitoring a small team can actually operate. We're equally honest about the other direction — if your workload doesn't need Kubernetes yet, we'll say so and save you the complexity.
Reference architecture
How we build with Kubernetes
Traffic
Workloads
Nodes
Platform
Scope
What our Kubernetes consulting covers
- Production cluster builds on EKS, GKE, or AKS — as Terraform, with upgrade runbooks
- Cluster rescues: the inherited cluster nobody dares upgrade, made boring again
- Version upgrades with zero downtime — PDBs, surge node pools, staged rollouts
- Autoscaling done right: HPA on real metrics, Karpenter or Autopilot for nodes
- GitOps deploys with Argo CD, secrets management, and per-PR preview environments
System design
How we scale systems on Kubernetes
- 1
Pods scale on symptoms, not CPU folklore: HPA driven by requests-per-second or queue depth via custom metrics beats CPU thresholds for most APIs
- 2
Nodes scale themselves: Karpenter (EKS) or Autopilot (GKE) provisions right-sized nodes in seconds and consolidates them when load drops
- 3
Reliability under scale is configuration: PodDisruptionBudgets, topology spread, and resource requests tuned from real usage — not defaults
- 4
The platform stays one team small: GitOps as the only deploy path, one staging + one prod cluster, and upgrades on a quarterly calendar
In practice
What a typical engagement looks like
A 15-engineer startup inherits an EKS cluster three versions behind with hand-edited YAML. We bring it to a supported version with zero downtime, move deploys to Argo CD, replace static node groups with Karpenter (spot for workers), and hand over runbooks — node spend down ~35%, upgrades now a routine quarterly task.
Illustrative engagement — representative of typical work at typical scale, not a specific client. See a full sample audit deliverable here.
Kubernetes work is covered by the Fractional DevOps retainer ($2,900/mo) and scoped fixed-price projects — start with the guaranteed $1,900 audit if you want findings before commitments.
Questions
Kubernetes, straight answers
Do we even need Kubernetes at our size?
Maybe not — and we'll tell you on the call. A handful of services with steady traffic runs beautifully on ECS Fargate, Cloud Run, or Container Apps at a fraction of the operational cost. Kubernetes earns its keep with many services, custom platform needs, ML workloads, or compliance isolation. Adopting it without an owner is how clusters become haunted.
Our cluster is years behind on versions. Is it rescuable?
Almost always, and without downtime. The pattern: reproduce the cluster as code, walk versions up one minor at a time with PDBs and surge nodes, move deploys to GitOps so drift can't return, then document the upgrade path. Rescues are among our most common fixed-price projects.
Related technologies
Need senior Kubernetes help without the hire?
A 15-minute call is enough to tell you exactly what we'd do and what it costs. No pitch deck, no pressure.