Why CockroachDB runs managed services on Kubernetes

Cockroach Labs chose Kubernetes for its managed service, CockroachDB Dedicated, due to its robust automation capabilities despite the complexity it introduces. Initially, the team evaluated various orchestration technologies and ultimately found Kubernetes advantageous because it allows software engineering and SRE teams to focus on application-level concerns rather than machine-level details. This decision was influenced by Kubernetes' ability to provide a cross-cloud abstraction, which is important for CockroachDB's deployments on GCP and AWS, and its capacity to automate tasks such as rolling updates and cluster management efficiently. Although Kubernetes adds cognitive load, particularly with its complex networking stack, the benefits of automation and orchestration were deemed to outweigh these challenges. The decision reflects broader industry trends where many users may adopt Kubernetes primarily for its automation primitives rather than for its binpacking capabilities, especially in the context of utilizing elastic compute resources from public clouds.

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