Today marks seven years of availability of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), the most automated and scaleable managed Kubernetes. We present seven ways GKE can help customers achieve amazing results.

Developer productivity is increased

Developer time is precious. GKE offers a wide range of integrated tools that will help you ship faster and better. Continuous integration (CI) is a practice that allows developers to integrate all of their code changes into a main branch. This helps expose failures quicker and makes it easier for them to fix them as soon as possible. A CI pipeline usually produces an artifact you can deploy later in the deployment process with continuous delivery. CD allows you to release code at any moment.

GKE’s developer tools are available in both CI and CD.

• With Cloud Code or Cloud Shell, developers can write, deploy and debug code quicker.
• Continuously integrate and provide updates using Cloud Builder
• Continuous delivery to GKE becomes easier, quicker, and more reliable when you use CloudDeploy
• Use Google Cloud’s operation suite to troubleshoot and debug problems.
• You can take your favorite partner solutions right out of the box

GKE Autopilot cluster speeds up app deployment, reduces configuration time, and simplifies ongoing management for Dev/Test clusters. Learn more about how to get started using GKE Autopilot.

Google Kubernetes Engine is simple to set up and scales well. Developers don’t have to worry about it being in production. They can just set the parameters and be sure it will work. “–Vincent Oliveira CTO, Lucky Cart

Software supply chain security is strengthened

All organizations must keep security top of mind. Autopilot mode Kubernetes clusters implement many GKE hardening functions by default. GKE Autopilot also improves cluster security by restricting access to Kubernetes API. It prevents node mutation and enforces robust security posture. You can also implement additional guidance in order to increase security for your clusters. Binary Authorization is a deploy time security control that ensures only trusted containers images are deployed to GKE. Binary Authorization allows you to have tighter control of your container environment, ensuring that only trusted images are included in the build-and release process. Learn more how to build security into your software supply chains

Astorino said that we needed to comply with HIPAA, which would have been painful on AWS. Additionally, we wanted to stop managing and operating Kubernetes clusters ourselves. We had heard positive things about GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine). A lot of technical requirements that you require for HIPAA compliance can be configured automatically on Google Cloud. This is especially valuable to us. –Troy Astorino is CoFounder & CTO at PicnicHealth

Platform approach creates new opportunities

Modern applications platforms allow for creativity and quick responses to customer needs. GKE customers use Kubernetes for building a modern enterprise-grade platform for their business. GKE allows them to support a wide range of containerized applications including stateful, stateless, ML, Linux, and Windows. GKE is able to run 15,000 node clusters and outscale other cloud providers up to 10X. This allows you to run applications efficiently and reliably at scale.

“Google Cloud managed services are playing a significant role in enabling Noon.com users to get their shopping done whenever and wherever they need. Without experiencing delays or glitches. We don’t have to lose sleep at nights to ensure that our platform works as it should .”–Alex Nadalin. SVP of Engineering, Noon.com

Customers get a continuous experience

Today’s consumers expect digital experiences that are available 24×7. GKE offers granular controls that allow you to provide reliable, always-on services and apps. Node auto-upgrade automatically upgrades and patches cluster nodes. The control plane is also updated and patched by Google. A release channel can be subscribed to, depending on your requirements and constraints. It can be either regular, rapid or stable. Release channels are a great option for enterprises because they provide the predictability required to plan ahead and allow you to create custom workflows when a change occurs. Learn more about release channels and maintenance windows.

We needed to convert our in-house software to a cloud-based, highly scalable solution to bring E.ON Optimum on the market. We specifically sought a partner that could run Kubernetes pods at scale, 100% of the times. This led to us choosing Google Cloud Dennis Nobel (Digital Delivery Manager, E.ON).

Organizations can save money and optimize their costs

You often need more resources in today’s macroeconomic environment. GKE Autopilot automatically adjusts compute resources so you don’t have to decide what size or shape of nodes to configure for your workloads. GKE Autopilot charges only for the pods that you use. You are billed per second for memory, vCPU and disk resource requests. GKE cost optimization insight helps you find optimization opportunities on a scale across your GKE clusters or workloads automatically and with minimal friction.

“We’ve reduced the cost of running our nodes by half, reduced maintenance work and been able to scale up or down automatically and effortlessly since migrating to GKE.” GKE is used for all of our customer production loads as well as the development environment. Since .”–HelgeRENNICKE, Director, Software Development, Market Logic Software, we have never experienced a major incident.

Focus on business innovation to fuel growth

Managed cloud services are helping IT divisions move from being cost centers to becoming value centers. GKE Autopilot provides no-stress management that allows you to focus on business innovation and hands-off cluster management. It also eliminates most day-2 cluster operations.

GKE offers the most advanced automation capabilities to operate your applications efficiently and effectively. GKE Autopilot is fully managed and allows you to quickly set up a cluster ready for production. You also have full control over configurations and maintenance.

“The automated features in Google Kubernetes Engine allow us to manage app traffic and create games with an amazing level of efficiency.” We currently only require two engineers to monitor traffic volume and all environments for our three games. This frees up more workers for innovation and development Aries Wang, Research and Development Manager, Yile Technology

It allows you to use your own tools in IT.

Multi-cloud is now a reality. Proprietary tools can be difficult to use and require special skills. With conformant Kubernetes, you can reduce vendor lock-in while maximizing the benefits of multi-cloud strategies. This includes support for all major cloud providers as well as conformant Kubernetes. Kubernetes workload portability allows you to move your apps around freely without any restrictions.