Kubernetes on Cloud: Architecture and Deployment Services

Finding the Best Place for you Kubernetes Environment

Public cloud is where the majority of Kubernetes workloads run — and with good reason. Managed Kubernetes services from the leading hyperscalers remove much of the operational overhead of running clusters, letting your teams focus on building and running applications rather than managing infrastructure.

But the question of which cloud, and how to architect what runs on it, is rarely straightforward.

Deploying Kubernetes on cloud is not the same as deploying it well. The difference between a cluster that works and a platform that’s genuinely fit for production — secure, scalable, observable, cost-efficient — lies in architecture decisions that are often invisible until something goes wrong. Cluster design, network segmentation, identity management, autoscaling policies, cost controls and observability all need to be right before you put production workloads on the platform.

At DeeperThanBlue, we help organisations get this right. As a cloud-agnostic Kubernetes Certified Service Provider, we design and deploy cloud Kubernetes environments across all major hyperscalers, bringing the depth of expertise that comes from doing this repeatedly in production. Whether you’re starting fresh, migrating existing workloads to Kubernetes in the cloud, or rearchitecting an environment that’s grown beyond its original design, we’re the partner you want.

Managed Kubernetes Across the Leading Hyperscalers

Each of the major cloud providers offers a managed Kubernetes service designed to simplify cluster operations by handling the control plane on your behalf. Choosing the right one depends on your existing cloud investments, your workloads and your organisation’s direction of travel.

Our cloud partnerships span all four hyperscalers. We’ll recommend the right platform for your workloads and organisation, not the one that suits us.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) on AWS

We design, build and manage EKS workloads using Terraform and cloud-native tooling, covering both containerised applications and hybrid VM environments. EKS is the most widely used managed Kubernetes service globally, with deep integration across the AWS ecosystem.

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Microsoft Azure

Integrated with the broader Microsoft ecosystem, including Azure Active Directory, Azure DevOps and Microsoft’s developer tooling. Particularly relevant for organisations already running on Azure or standardising on Microsoft technology.

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) on Google Cloud

Google created Kubernetes, and GKE remains one of the most mature managed Kubernetes services available. Autopilot mode offers a particularly low-overhead operational model for teams that want to minimise cluster management.

IBM Kubernetes Service on IBM Cloud

Particularly relevant for organisations running IBM middleware or Cloud Pak workloads, or those with regulatory requirements that benefit from IBM’s compliance certifications.

Kubernetes Cloud Migration: Moving Workloads to the Cloud

Kubernetes cloud migration — moving existing applications to run on managed Kubernetes in public cloud — is one of the most common engagements we undertake. It’s rarely as simple as lifting containers from one environment and dropping them into another. Production-grade cloud Kubernetes requires careful attention to how applications are packaged, how data is managed, how networking is configured, and how the transition is sequenced to maintain service availability.

Our cloud migration services cover:

  • Workload assessment: understanding what you’re moving, what dependencies exist, and what needs to change
  • Target architecture design: defining the right cloud Kubernetes environment before migration begins
  • Containerisation of applications not yet running in containers
  • Phased migration execution: moving workloads in sequences that maintain availability and allow rollback
  • Post-migration validation, performance testing and operational handover

We’ve executed cloud migrations ranging from straightforward containerisation of individual services to complex migrations of large-scale enterprise platforms. The complexity is always in the detail, and we bring the experience to navigate it.

Read Our Case Study

Kubernetes Architecture Design for Cloud

Choosing a managed Kubernetes service is just the starting point. The real value — and the real risk — lies in how you architect the environment around it. A poorly designed Kubernetes environment on cloud will be expensive to run, difficult to secure and painful to operate. A well-designed one will be a platform your teams can build on confidently for years.

The goal is a platform that your teams can rely on and build on, not one that needs constant firefighting.

Our cloud architecture services cover:

 

  • Cluster architecture and node group design for your specific workload types and scaling requirements
  • Network segmentation, VPC design, ingress configuration and service mesh evaluation
  • Identity and access management, RBAC, secrets management and pod security configuration

 

  • Infrastructure-as-Code deployment using Terraform, Vault and Helm — so your environment is reproducible, version-controlled and auditable
  • Horizontal and vertical autoscaling policies — scaling that responds to actual demand without unnecessary cost
  • High availability configuration across availability zones — designed to survive zone-level failures

 

  • Observability stack design — metrics, logging and alerting with Prometheus, Grafana and equivalent tooling
  • Cost governance — resource quotas, rightsizing, spot instance strategies and tagging frameworks

Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Strategies

Many organisations choose to run Kubernetes across more than one cloud provider: to avoid vendor lock-in, to support workloads with different geographic or regulatory requirements, or to maintain resilience against provider-level outages. Multi-cloud Kubernetes is achievable, but it adds architectural complexity that needs to be managed carefully.

DeeperThanBlue’s cloud-agnostic approach means we design platforms for portability. We have real production experience with multi-cloud Kubernetes environments — including deployments that span Rackspace private cloud and AWS EKS simultaneously. We can help you architect environments that support:

  • Cross-cloud workload portability using consistent tooling, configurations and GitOps workflows
  • Disaster recovery and failover architectures spanning providers
  • Global traffic management and latency-optimised routing
  • Consistent security policies and governance across all cloud environments
  • Unified observability — monitoring and alerting that covers your entire multi-cloud estate

 

Multi-cloud Kubernetes is not the right approach for every organisation, and we’ll tell you honestly if a simpler architecture would serve you better. But for organisations where the business case is clear, we have the expertise to make it work in practice.

Choosing the Right Cloud Kubernetes Approach

Smaller organisations and startups typically benefit most from straightforward managed Kubernetes — EKS, AKS or GKE [LINKS] — with solid architecture and minimal operational overhead. Complexity should be added only when there’s a clear need for it.

Mid-sized organisations often need to add governance, security controls, cost management and DevOps automation on top of managed services. The platform needs to scale with the organisation and support multiple teams working in parallel.

Larger enterprises — particularly those with hybrid infrastructure or strong compliance requirements — may benefit from an enterprise Kubernetes platform such as Red Hat OpenShift [LINK], which runs consistently across both cloud and on-premise environments with integrated enterprise tooling.

The right Kubernetes strategy depends heavily on where your organisation is and what you need to achieve.

We’ll help you work out which approach makes sense for your situation. See our Red Hat OpenShift page and Kubernetes On-Premises page for more on those options.

From Deployment to Ongoing Operations

Cloud Kubernetes is not a deploy-and-forget proposition. Clusters need ongoing management: upgrades, scaling adjustments, security patching, cost optimisation and troubleshooting. The operational discipline required to run Kubernetes well in production is often underestimated.

DeeperThanBlue’s 24/7 support desk is available to maintain your Kubernetes environments once they’re live. Our certified administrators handle monitoring, incident response and routine operations — so your team can stay focused on development rather than infrastructure management.

Why Choose DeeperThanBlue for Cloud Kubernetes?

As one of only 200 globally recognised Kubernetes Certified Service Providers, we bring a level of specialisation that most cloud consultancies can’t match. Our team includes Certified Kubernetes Administrators with hands-on production experience across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud.

We’re certified partners of all four major hyperscalers, which means we have direct access to technical resources and support when complex issues arise. And because we’re cloud-agnostic, our recommendations are driven by what’s right for your workloads — not by commercial preference.

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Kubernetes on Cloud FAQs

1. What is managed Kubernetes and why use it? +

2. What is multi-cloud Kubernetes and when does it make sense? +

3. How long does a Kubernetes cloud migration take? +

4. Which cloud is best for Kubernetes — AWS, Azure or Google Cloud? +

5. Can Kubernetes run across multiple cloud providers simultaneously? +

6. How do I manage Kubernetes costs in cloud? +

7. What is the difference between Kubernetes on cloud and Red Hat OpenShift? +

8. Do I need a Kubernetes specialist or will a general cloud consultant do? +

9. What is Kubernetes cloud migration and how does it work? +

10. Can DeeperThanBlue support our Kubernetes environment after deployment? +