Kubernetes is the industry’s best-in-class solution for containerization management because of its flexibility, scalability, and its extensible APIs that can be used to satisfy myriad integration and automation needs. Kubernetes can be used in cloud environments, on-premises server environments, and combinations of both hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures. Cloud environments can include public clouds such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. While these “Big 3” account for more than 65% of cloud usage, dozens of other cloud providers, such as Alibaba Cloud, Salesforce, IBM Cloud, Oracle, Rakuten, and Tencent make up the remaining third of cloud utilization.
A hybrid cloud environment generally refers to infrastructure spanning both public cloud service providers and private clouds. It may also include on-premises infrastructure. Conversely, multi-cloud includes services from multiple cloud providers operating concurrently. Both types of infrastructure require automated tools to monitor and optimize costs—and both add significant complexity to understanding the drivers of that cost and how to approach right-sizing.
It’s not just scale and multi-everything that drives complexity and cost. Containerization and the management of containers at scale is inherently complex. The flexible, versatile, and dynamic nature of Kubernetes makes cost tracking extremely challenging, especially as infrastructures become more varied and more automated. Have a hybrid setup? It turns out that tracking costs in an on-prem Kubernetes environment can be more complex than cost monitoring in a cloud environment.
Getting an upper hand on costs and the data needed to perform granular allocation in these highly dynamic environments can feel like an impossibility: too much or too little data, rising costs that can’t reasonably be explained, and a sea of spreadsheets and home-built tools to attempt tracking and reporting. Understanding the differences in cloud cost visibility versus on-prem Kubernetes cost allocation can give you a leg-up in mastering cloud cost allocation.
Let’s break down some key differences in cost monitoring for both on-prem and cloud environments.
Organizations may choose on-premises servers for many reasons. On-premises physical servers generally can offer more control and security over data and hardware. From a cost tracking standpoint, Kubernetes service running in an on-prem server can be very complex and difficult to conduct with manual tools like spreadsheets or simple amortization tools.
When you’re dealing with on-prem data centers and servers, costs include a combination of capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX). For example, some considerations include the costs of hardware such as servers, as well as equipment and expenses related to power, cooling, and physical space. Plus, depreciation calculations are part of the equation when capital expenditures are involved. Resource and labor costs are another factor. Conversely, when tracking costs for Kubernetes running in an exclusively public cloud environment, generally those hardware and fixed costs aren’t part of the calculation.
Organizations may also choose hybrid cloud environments that run both private on-premises servers concurrently with public or private clouds hosted by third-party providers. Hybrid cloud infrastructure allows a more seamless transfer of workloads and applications. Other advantages of hybrid cloud environments include flexibility, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and higher security.
However, from a cost monitoring and optimization perspective, hybrid cloud environments, including those that also have on-premises services, are significantly complex and will require solutions well adapted to the nuanced complexities of Kubernetes with granular cost and utilization tracking capabilities.
Some of the best steps you can take for cost monitoring for Kubernetes clusters or workloads are similar for both on-prem and cloud environments.
Cost Monitoring for Kubernetes:
However, the additional hardware, servers, and labor costs associated with on-prem systems add additional complexity. Since departments, teams, applications, and projects typically share one Kubernetes cluster, there must be a way to separate the components of the workload. Tools and approaches you use here should reflect the business needs and challenges you face. Need to know the cost of adding a customer, or for delivering service to a specific customer? Want to track cost and efficiency by team, or product? If the answer is yes, you’ll need tools capable of delivering a highly granular view into Kubernetes cost and usage.
Organization is critical when monitoring costs in an on-premises Kubernetes environment. For example, organizing workloads on-prem can be done in several ways including through labeling for namespace, teams, applications, or pods. What are your important technical and business dimensions? Perhaps products, cost centers, or development teams? Although the best time to have introduced rigor around labeling and tagging resources was years ago, it’s never too late to start (or improve). Building muscle memory through practice when it comes to consistent, quality labeling and tagging is one of the most worthwhile investments you can make with your team.
Each cloud service provider offers a cost-monitoring tool for their services (for instance, AWS Cost Explorer, Google Cloud Cost Management, and Azure Cost Management) and each provides insights, with varying degrees of detail, into your cloud spending. This leaves engineering and FinOps teams to glue and script together their own hand-crafted solutions, creating more work for teams no longer working on the value chain.
However, solutions such as Kubecost offer a more comprehensive remedy for challenges associated with overall cost tracking and monitoring of Kubernetes services and clusters running in multiple cloud environments or on-prem.
Kubecost provides granular monitoring and allocation for organizations running complex Kubernetes environments, including on-premises and hybrid cloud environments. Some of the key features of Kubecost include detailed cost allocation, unified cost monitoring, optimization insights, and governance tools.
Kubecost offers real-time data for costs, breakdowns, as well as operational insights. With Kubecost, teams can create scalable and more efficient ways of assessing complete, accurate, and transparent cost and operational data across multiple Kubernetes clusters and services, no matter where they’re deployed.
Whether it’s in the cloud or a hybrid environment, your applications, your customers, and your business benefit from more operationally efficient software architecture and the code it’s built from.
Kubecost helps enable developers and operators:
Kubecost offers real-time visibility and monitoring of Kubernetes costs, and runs on any Kubernetes environment, including Amazon Kubernetes Service (AKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and on-prem. Get started in minutes, and take control of your cloud costs today.
To learn more, reach out via email (team-kubecost@ibm.com), Slack, or visit our website.
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