Advantages of Kubernetes from vshosting~ Compared to Traditional Clouds

Our clients often ask how our new service Platform for Kubernetes differs from similar products provided by e.g. Amazon, Google, etc. There are quite a few distinctions so we decided to describe them in detail in this article.

Individualized Infrastructure Design

Most of the traditional clouds provide a platform for the infrastructure but the design and creation itself remains the clients’ responsibility – or more accurately, the clients’ developers’ responsibility. Most developers, however, would much rather spend their time developing (surprise!) as opposed to reading a 196-page manual on how to use Amazon EKS. Unlike most manuals in life, this one really needs to be read – setting up Kubernetes on Amazon is not particularly intuitive.

In addition, we’re happy to assist you in analyzing your application readiness for transfer to Kubernetes, if it’s not utilizing it yet. Based on your requirements, we’ll also help you select the most suitable technologies (at no extra cost!) to make sure everything works the way it should and so that eventual scaling is as easy as possible. 

At vshosting~, we understand how frustrating this can be for many companies. The development team should concern themselves with development and not waste time on something outside their expertise. Therefore, unlike traditional clouds, we put great emphasis on custom designing the Kubernetes solution ourselves for each client. There’s no need to engage in complicated selection among predefined packages, read lengthy manuals or wreck your brain thinking about the best infrastructure design. We’ll prepare the Kubernetes infrastructure precisely based on the needs of your application, including load balancing, networking, storage, and other necessities.

Speaking of scaling: that’s exceedingly simple with our Kubernetes solution. Again: no package selection required. At vshosting~, you simply scale up or down with full flexibility, exactly according to your current needs. We also offer the option of fine scaling of only the necessary resources. Does your application need more RAM or disc space because you got a lot of new clients? No problem.

Once we finish designing your fully customized infrastructure, we conduct an individualized installation and set up Kubernetes and load balancers before transferring everything to live traffic. Just to clarify – all of these tasks would be your responsibility if using Google’s, Amazon’s, or Microsoft’s Kubernetes solution. We’ll carefully tweak everything in close cooperation with you. After launching, Kubernetes will run on our cloud or hardware in our own data center ServerPark.

Option to Combine Physical Servers with Cloud 

Another advantage of Kubernetes from vshosting~ is that you can combine cloud and physical servers as needed – other Kubernetes providers don’t offer this. Thanks to this feature, you can e.g. start testing Kubernetes on a Virtual Machine with lower performance and only after that transfer the project to production by adding physical servers (all that with zero downtime) with eventual maintenance of the current VMs for development purposes.

Point of comparison: e.g. Google offers either the option of on-prem Google Kubernetes Engine or running Kubernetes in the cloud but you have to choose one or the other. Plus you have to manage the on-prem variant on your own. You won’t find a physical server + cloud combo option at Amazon or Microsoft either.

At vshosting~, you can mix and match physical servers and cloud as you please and we take care of the entire management to boot. You can focus solely on development and leave the operations to us. We take care of managing the operating systems of all Kubernetes nodes and load balancers, ensure upgrades of operating systems, kernel, etc. (we can even upgrade Kubernetes itself if you like). 

High SLA and 24×7 Senior Support 

One of the most important criteria when choosing a good Kubernetes platform is its availability. Which is why it may come as a surprise that neither Microsoft AKS nor Google GEK offer an SLA (i.e. a „financially-backed service level agreement“) and only claim that they’ll “do their best to ensure the availability of at least 99,5%“.

Amazon EKS does mention a 99,9% SLA but considering their credit refund conditions, it is, in fact, more of a 95% availability guarantee – only below that level does Amazon refund 100 % of your credit. In the event of only a small drop below 99,9% availability, just 10 % of your credit gets refunded.

At vshosting~, we contractually guarantee 99,97% availability: that is even more than the somewhat theoretical SLA at Amazon and much more than the not-guaranteed 99,5% availability at Microsoft and Google. In reality, our availability hovers around 99,99 %. In addition, our managed Kubernetes solution also operates in the high-availability cluster mode, so if a server or a part of the cloud malfunctions, the solution immediately starts running on a backup server or in a different part of the cloud.

Moreover, we guarantee high-speed connectivity as well as unlimited data streams to anywhere in the world. Each client also gets a guaranteed dedicated bandwidth. Our network has a capacity of up 1 Tbps and each pathway is backed up multiple times. 

Thanks to the high-availability cluster mode, high network capacity, and backed up connection, the vshosting~ Kubernetes solution is exceptionally resistant to outages of any part of the cluster. Besides, our experienced teams are continually monitoring your solution and quickly identify eventual beginning problems before they can manifest to the end-user. We also have robust AntiDDoS protection which effectively prevents any cyberattacks on the cluster.

Debugging and Monitoring of the Entire Infrastructure

In contrast to the traditional clouds, at vshosting~, teams of senior administrators and technicians that sit directly in our datacenter watch over your solution 24/7. In the event of a problem, they react within 60 seconds – even at, say, 2 am on a Saturday. These experts are monitoring dozens of parameters of the entire solution (hardware, load balancers, Kubernetes) and as a result, can eliminate most of the problems before they start causing trouble. On top of all that, we guarantee a repair or an exchange of a malfunctioning server within 60 minutes.

For maximum simplification, you’ll get a single contact from us that you can use for all services you have with us: be it Kubernetes itself, its management, or anything regarding infrastructure. We’ll take care of standard maintenance as well as complicated debugging. Consultations regarding the concrete form of Docker files (3 hours monthly) are also included in the price of our Platform for Kubernetes service.