Managed Kubernetes on a major cloud provider can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month — and much of that spending hides behind defaults, minimum resource ratios, and auxiliary services you didn't ask for.

Fernando Duran, founder of SadServers, shares how his GKE Autopilot proof of concept ran close to $1,000/month on a fraction of the CPU of the actual workload and how he cut that to roughly $30/month by moving to Hetzner with Edka as a managed control plane.

In this interview:

• Why Kubernetes hasn't delivered on its original promise of cost savings through bin packing — and what it actually provides instead

• A real cost comparison: $1,000/month on GKE vs. $30/month on Hetzner with Edka for the same nominal capacity

• What you need to bring with you (observability, logging, dashboards) when leaving a fully managed cloud provider

The decision comes down to how tightly coupled you are to cloud-specific services and whether your team can spare the cycles to manage the gaps.

Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by LearnKube — get started on your Kubernetes journey through comprehensive online, in-person or remote training.

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