Kubernetes is not a platform itself but rather a foundation that teams can build platforms on top of. Building a platform requires defining clear service boundaries to reduce cognitive load on teams and providing reliable, purpose-fit, and developer experience focused services. Case studies show how Airbnb and Anthropic built platforms on Kubernetes that allowed stream-aligned teams to work autonomously through self-service capabilities while maintaining collaboration between teams through defined interactions. Key considerations for teams starting their Kubernetes adoption include assessing cognitive load, defining their internal platform, and collaborating on new platform services.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
K8s is Not Your Platform,
It’s Just the Foundation
Manuel Pais
co-author of Team Topologies
QCon London 2020
@manupaisable

2. Team Topologies
2
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (2019)
https://teamtopologies.com

3. 3
Is Kubernetes a Platform?
Team Cognitive Load
Team Interactions
Getting Started

4. Is Kubernetes a Platform?
5

5. 6
Source: https://www.infoq.com/news/2019/03/airbnb-kubernetes-workflow
Melanie’s talk: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/airbnb-kubernetes-services

6. 7

7. Kubernetes “platform”
microservices
ops complexity
8

8. Kubernetes “platform”
deploy & run
abstractions
9

9. 10

10. 11
Still need to...
… sizing hosts
… create/destroy clusters
… update to new K8s versions
… decide on namespaces vs clusters
<insert your fav chore here>

11. 12
Still need to...
… sizing hosts
… create/destroy clusters
… update to new K8s versions
… decide on namespaces vs clusters
worry about security

12. Who is the provider?
13

13. Who is the provider?
Who is the consumer?
14

14. 15

15. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
16

16. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
17

17. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
18

18. Kubernetes is not your
platform. It’s the foundation.
19

19. “Create a path of
least resistance.
Make the right thing
the easiest thing to do.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
20

20. The hard thing about
platforms is to constantly
evolve & adapt to
new & old customers.
21

21. 27

22. devopstopologies.com
K8s

23. Team Cognitive Load
33

24. “Cognitive load is the total
amount of mental effort
being used in the working
memory”
- John Sweller
34

25. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
35
“How are
classes
defined in
Java?”

26. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
36
“How do I
deploy this
app,
again?”

27. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
37
“How do
bank
transfers
work?”

28. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
38

29. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
39

30. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
40

31. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanics)
Germane (domain focus)
41

32. More: ‘Hacking Your Head’
42
Jo Pearce
(@jdpearce)
https://www.slideshare.net/JoPearce5/hacking-your-head-managing-information-overload-extended

33. Be mindful of your
platform choices’ impact
on teams’ cognitive load
43

34. CaseStudy
44

35. “The best part of my day is when I
update 10 different YAML files to
deploy a one-line code change.”
45

36. “The best part of my day is when I
update 10 different YAML files to
deploy a one-line code change.”
– No One, Ever
46

37. 48

38. Clarify (platform) service
boundaries and provide
abstractions to reduce the
cognitive load on teams.
49

39. 51

40. 52

41. 53

42. 54

43. CaseStudy
55

44. 56
Source: https://medium.com/@pingles/convergence-to-kubernetes-137ffa7ea2bc

45. 57
Low-level AWS service calls (EC2, IAM, STS, Autoscaling, etc.) from January 2015 to January 2017

46. “We didn’t change our organization
because we wanted to use
Kubernetes, we used Kubernetes
because we wanted to change
our organization.”
- Paul Ingles
58

47. 59
Low-level AWS service calls since Kubernetes adoption in January 2017

48. 61
enable stream-aligned
teams to deliver work
autonomously with
self-service capabilities ...
Platform Purpose

49. 62
… in order to reduce
extraneous cognitive load
on stream-aligned teams
Platform Purpose

50. “We wanted to scale our teams but
maintain the principles of what
helped us move fast: autonomy,
work with minimal coordination,
self-service infrastructure.”
- Paul Ingles
64

51. Treat the platform
as a product
65

52. Reliable
Fit for Purpose
Focused on DevEx
66

53. 67
on-call support
service status pages
suitable comms channels
response time for incidents
downtime planned & announced
Reliable Platform

54. 68
prototyping
fast, regular feedback
agile, iterative practices
few(er) services, high(er) quality
skilled product management
Fit for Purpose Platform

55. 69
speak the same language
right level of abstractions for
your engineering teams today
#DevEx Focused Platform

56. “Kubernetes helps us in a few ways:
- Application-focused abstractions
- Operate and configure clusters to
minimise coordination ”
- Paul Ingles 70

57. Dynamic Database Credentials
Multi-Cluster Load Balancing
Alerts + SLOs
Source (Joseph Irving):https://t.co/99gwRH7dU2

58. 72

59. 73

60. 74
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)

61. 75
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

62. 76
...
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HMMT
(Highest Money
Making Team)
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

63. 77
...
Addressed critical
cross-functional
needs (GDPR,
security, alerts +
SLOs as a service)
Adoption by HMMT
(Highest Money
Making Team)
2018
Infra platform
started with few
services
First customer
(centralized
logging, metrics,
auto scaling)
2019
Started using SLAs
and SLOs, clarifying
reliability/latency/etc
Growing traffic in
platform vs AWS

64. 78
product metrics
Platform Metrics

65. 4 key metrics: ‘Accelerate’
79
lead time
deployment frequency
mean time to restore (MTTR)
change fail percentage

66. 80
product metrics
user satisfaction metrics
Platform Metrics

67. 81

68. 82
product metrics
user satisfaction metrics
adoption & engagement metrics
Platform Metrics

69. 83

70. 84
product metrics
user satisfaction metrics
adoption & engagement metrics
reliability metrics
Platform Metrics

71. 85

72. 86
product metrics
(Accelerate metrics for platform services)
user satisfaction metrics
(Accelerate metrics for business services, NPS, etc)
adoption & engagement metrics
(% teams onboard, per platform and per service)
reliability metrics
(SLOs, latency, #Incidents, etc)
Platform Metrics

73. 87
The success of platform
teams is the success of
stream-aligned teams

74. Team Interactions
92

75. 94

76. 95

77. 96service boundary

78. 97service boundarycognitive load

79. 104
strong collaboration with
stream-aligned teams for
any new service or evolution
Platform Behaviors

80. 105

81. 106
provide support and great
documentation for stable
services
Platform Behaviors

82. 107

83. 108

84. 109

85. 115

86. 116

87. 117

88. 118

89. 122
Source: https://landscape.cncf.io

90. 123

91. 124

92. Getting Started
with team-centric
Kubernetes adoption
125

93. How well can the team understand the
platform/Kubernetes abstractions they
need to use on a regular basis?
1 - Assess cognitive load
126

94. What’s the gap between your
Kubernetes implementation and an
internal digital platform?
2 - Define your platform
127

95. Who is responsible for what? Who is
impacted? How do you collaborate on
new platform internal services?
Collaboration vs X-as-a-Service
3 - Team Interactions
128

96. Zalando Kubernetes at Zalando
Mercedes DevOps Adoption at Mercedes-Benz.io
Twilio Platforms at Twilio: Unlocking Developer Effectiveness
Adidas Where Cloud Native Meets the Sporting Goods Industry
ITV ITV's Common Platform v2 Better, Faster, Cheaper, Happier
MAN Truck & Bus How to Manage Cloud Infrastructure at MAN Truck & Bus
Farfetch UX I DevOps - The Trojan Horse for Implementing a DevOps Culture
More platform examples
129

97. 130
https://techbeacon.com/enterprise-it/why-teams-fail-kubernetes-what-do-about-it

98. Thank you!
teamtopologies.com
131
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
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