Technical Specifications

Maintaining current and secure Kubernetes versions is essential for performance, security, and feature availability. Organizations often struggle with upgrade planning, testing compatibility, and executing upgrades without disruption.

Supported Kubernetes Versions

• Latest stable version (currently 1.28.x)
• Previous two minor versions (1.27.x, 1.26.x)
• Extended support available for legacy versions (with additional security hardening)

Upgrade Policy

• Automated rolling updates with zero-downtime for worker nodes
• Control plane updates with minimal disruption (typically <30 seconds API unavailability)
• Configurable maintenance windows (business hours or off-peak)
• Custom surge configurations to control update pace
• Pre-update compatibility checks for custom resources and operators
• Rollback capability in case of unforeseen issues

Version Support Lifecycle

• New versions available within 30 days of official Kubernetes release
• Security patches applied within 7 days of release
• End-of-life notifications provided 90 days in advance
• Assisted upgrades available for complex environments

Proper Kubernetes architecture is fundamental to stability, security, and scalability. Many organizations underestimate the complexity of designing resilient control planes, network architectures, and storage systems that meet enterprise requirements.

Control Plane Architecture

• Highly available control plane with minimum 3 replicas
• Distributed etcd cluster with automated backup (6-hour intervals)
• Control plane components deployed as static pods with health monitoring
• API server load balancing for even request distribution
• Automated leader election for controller-manager and scheduler
• Dedicated control plane nodes isolated from workloads

Networking Options

• Multiple CNI plugin support:
  • Calico (default) - for advanced network policy and BGP support
  • Cilium - for eBPF-based security and observability
  • Flannel - for simplified deployment scenarios
• Support for custom MTU configuration and overlay networks
• Multi-cluster networking options available

Ingress Controllers

• NGINX Ingress Controller (default)
• Optional support for Traefik or Contour
• Automated TLS certificate management with cert-manager
• Advanced routing capabilities with path-based, header-based, and cookie-based routing

Service Mesh Options

• Istio integration available (optional component)
• Linkerd support for lightweight service mesh requirements
• Mesh visualization and management tools

Effective observability is critical for operating Kubernetes environments successfully. Many teams struggle to implement comprehensive monitoring that provides actionable insights without overwhelming operators with noise.

Integrated Prometheus Stack

• Prometheus deployment with high availability configuration
• Default scraping configured for all Kubernetes components
• Custom scraping endpoints easily configurable
• Configurable retention policies (default: 15 days)
• Remote write capability for long-term storage integration
• Thanos integration available for multi-cluster query capability

Grafana Dashboards

• Pre-configured dashboard suite with over 20 specialized views:
  • Cluster overview and capacity planning
  • Node performance and resource utilization
  • Pod and container metrics
  • Network performance and throughput
  • Storage performance
• Dashboard templating for multi-cluster visibility
• Custom dashboard import capability
• Grafana Alerting integration

Alerting System

• Pre-configured alert rules covering critical infrastructure and application metrics
• Multi-channel notifications (email, Slack, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, etc.)
• Configurable alert thresholds and severity levels
• Alert grouping and de-duplication
• Silencing and maintenance windows support

Log Aggregation

• Centralized logging with Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK stack)
• Configurable log retention policies
• Support for structured logging formats
• Log filtering and parsing for specific application formats
• Optional log forwarding to external SIEM systems

Reliable storage for stateful applications in Kubernetes remains a significant challenge. Organizations struggle with data persistence, consistent performance, and building reliable backup and recovery processes for containerized workloads.

Storage Classes

• Multiple pre-configured storage classes:
  • standard - General purpose SSD-backed storage (default)
  • premium-ssd - High-performance storage for I/O-intensive workloads
  • standard-hdd - Cost-effective storage for large datasets
  • local-storage - Node-local NVMe storage for extreme performance
• Custom storage classes available on request
• Support for ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes where needed

CSI Drivers

• Integration with major CSI providers:
  • Ceph RBD and CephFS
  • NetApp Trident
  • OpenEBS
  • AWS EBS (for hybrid deployments)
• CSI snapshotter for point-in-time snapshots
• Volume expansion support

Backup & Restore

• Velero-based backup solution for cluster resources and persistent volumes
• Configurable backup schedules (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Incremental backups to minimize storage and bandwidth
• Point-in-time recovery capability
• Cross-cluster and cross-region backup support
• Backup encryption for sensitive data
• Retention policies configurable per backup schedule

Object Storage

• S3-compatible object storage service
• Bucket lifecycle policies
• Object versioning and locking capabilities
• Cross-region replication option

Kubernetes security requires expertise across multiple domains from authentication to network security. Many organizations struggle to implement defense-in-depth strategies that adequately protect containerized applications without impeding developer productivity.

Authentication & Authorization

• Multiple authentication methods supported:
  • OIDC integration with major providers (Azure AD, Google, Okta, etc.)
  • Certificate-based authentication
  • Service account tokens with automatic rotation
• Comprehensive RBAC implementation with predefined roles
• Namespace isolation for multi-team environments
• Audit logging of all authentication and authorization events

Secret Management

• Kubernetes secrets encryption at rest (using KMS)
• Optional integration with external secret management:
  • HashiCorp Vault
  • AWS Secrets Manager
  • Azure Key Vault
• Secret rotation capabilities

Network Security

• Network policy enforcement (default-deny recommended)
• Advanced Calico network policies for additional control
• Egress controls for outbound traffic restriction
• TLS termination and mutual TLS support
• DDoS protection at edge

Pod Security

• Pod Security Standards enforcement (Baseline profile by default)
• Container vulnerability scanning integration
• Runtime security with optional Falco integration
• Resource limits enforced by default
• Privileged container restrictions

Compliance Controls

• CIS Kubernetes Benchmark adherence
• Regular security audits and penetration testing
• Compliance reporting for major standards (upon request)

Kubernetes networking complexity often creates challenges for teams trying to implement reliable application connectivity, load balancing, and network security policies. Poor network architecture can lead to latency, security vulnerabilities, and reliability issues.

CNI Implementation

• Default cluster CIDR: 10.96.0.0/12 (configurable)
• Service CIDR: 10.128.0.0/16 (configurable)
• Pod CIDR per node: /24 subnets (configurable)
• MTU optimization for performance
• Support for dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 networking

Service Types

• Full support for all Kubernetes service types:
  • ClusterIP for internal services
  • NodePort for development and testing
  • LoadBalancer for public-facing services
  • ExternalName for CNAME integration
• Internal load balancers for private services
• Session affinity configuration options
• Multi-port service support

External Load Balancers

• Automated provisioning of load balancers
• Support for annotations to configure load balancer features
• Health check configuration
• SSL termination and certificate management
• Connection draining for graceful service updates
• Static IP assignment capabilities

Ingress Capabilities

• Path-based routing
• Host-based virtual hosting
• TLS termination with automated certificate management
• Rate limiting and traffic shaping
• WebSocket support
• Customizable timeout configurations
• Custom header manipulation

Egress Control

• Egress gateway for controlled outbound traffic
• Egress IP management for source IP consistency
• Egress network policies for destination filtering

Implementing efficient deployment pipelines for Kubernetes requires specialized expertise. Organizations often struggle with building CI/CD workflows that properly manage deployment dependencies, maintain consistency, and implement governance controls.

Supported GitOps Tools

• First-class integration with industry-standard GitOps tools:
  • ArgoCD with multi-cluster management
  • Flux CD for automated deployments
  • Jenkins X for Kubernetes-native CI/CD
• GitOps operator deployment and management
• Multi-environment promotion workflows
• Drift detection and reconciliation

CI/CD Integration

• Integration with major CI/CD platforms:
  • Jenkins
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitLab CI/CD
  • Azure DevOps
  • CircleCI
• Pipeline templates for common deployment patterns
• Integration with container registries
• Automated vulnerability scanning in CI pipeline

Application Deployment Patterns

• Blue/green deployment support
• Canary deployment capabilities
• A/B testing infrastructure
• Feature flag integration
• Rollback automation

Templating & Package Management

• Helm chart support with private chart repository
• Kustomize integration for environment-specific customization
• Operator Lifecycle Manager for Kubernetes operators

Automating Kubernetes operations is essential for scaling operations efficiently. Organizations often struggle to build standardized, repeatable processes that reduce manual effort while maintaining security and compliance.

Management API

• RESTful API for platform management operations
• API endpoints for:
  • Cluster provisioning and configuration
  • Node pool management
  • User and RBAC management
  • Monitoring and alerting configuration
  • Backup and restore operations
• API authentication via API keys or OAuth2
• Rate limiting and request throttling for stability
• Comprehensive API documentation

Infrastructure as Code Support

• Terraform provider for platform resources
• Example templates for common deployment patterns
• Ansible modules for configuration management
• Custom resource definitions (CRDs) for Kubernetes-native management

Automation Capabilities

• Event-driven automation hooks
• Scheduled tasks via CronJobs
• Webhook integration for external systems
• Custom controllers for business-specific automation
• Audit logging for all automated actions

Ensuring reliable operations for business-critical Kubernetes workloads requires clear service level agreements and responsive support. Organizations often struggle to find providers offering comprehensive support that matches their operational requirements.

Service Level Agreements

• Kubernetes API availability: 99.9% (measured monthly)
• Control plane uptime: 99.95% (excluding planned maintenance)
• Monitoring system availability: 99.9%
• Incident response times:
  • Critical (P1): 15 minutes
  • High (P2): 30 minutes
  • Medium (P3): 4 hours
  • Low (P4): 24 hours
• SLA credits for service disruptions

Support Tiers

• Standard Support: 8x5 support with email and ticket-based assistance
• Business Support: 16x6 support with email, ticket, and phone support
• Enterprise Support: 24x7x365 support with dedicated technical account manager

Support Capabilities

• Multi-channel support (portal, email, phone)
• Kubernetes platform troubleshooting
• Performance optimization assistance
• Configuration guidance
• Upgrade planning and assistance
• Regular service reviews (Enterprise tier)
• Documentation and knowledge base access

Escalation Process

• Clearly defined escalation path with response time guarantees
• Emergency escalation contacts
• Dedicated incident managers for critical issues
• Post-incident reviews for major events
• Continuous service improvement process

Meeting regulatory requirements while operating Kubernetes platforms requires specialized knowledge and processes. Organizations face significant challenges in ensuring their containerized applications comply with regional data protection laws and industry regulations.

Data Protection Framework

• GDPR compliance for all platform operations
• Data processing agreements available
• Technical measures for data protection:
  • Encryption in transit (TLS 1.3)
  • Encryption at rest (AES-256)
  • Access controls and authorization
  • Audit logging for compliance verification
  • Data isolation between tenants
• Data residency guarantees within Latvia/EU
• Regular security assessments and penetration testing

Latvian Data Protection Compliance

• Compliance with the Personal Data Processing Law (Latvia)
• Adherence to Data State Inspectorate guidelines
• Provisions for data subject rights (access, rectification, deletion)
• Established breach notification procedures

Compliance Documentation

• Audit reports available upon request
• Compliance certifications
• Security whitepapers and documentation
• Data processing maps
• Risk assessment documentation