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Open Cluster Management

Open Source

About Open Cluster Management

Open Cluster Management is a community-driven project focused on multicluster and multicloud scenarios for Kubernetes apps. Open APIs are evolving within the project for cluster registration, work distribution, dynamic placement of policies and workloads, and more. The project aims to make working with many Kubernetes clusters easy regardless of where they are deployed. It is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project.

Products

Cluster Inventory: Registers multiple clusters to a hub cluster to place them for management.
Work Distribution: Provides a work API that enables resources to be applied to managed clusters from a hub cluster.
Content Placement: Provides dynamic placement of content and behavior across multiple clusters.
AI Workload Management: Runs AI workloads across clusters with security and efficiency.
Launch Apps Everywhere: Uses application lifecycle to create and deliver hybrid apps across one or more clusters while keeping up with changes.

Used for

Registering multiple clusters to a hub cluster for management
Applying resources to managed clusters from a hub cluster
Placing content and behavior dynamically across multiple clusters
Running AI workloads across clusters
Delivering hybrid apps across one or more clusters

From Open Cluster Management's own website, read 2026-10-24. How we build listings.

How to evaluate Containers & Kubernetes

This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of Open Cluster Management. It comes from our Kubernetes Platforms buyer guide.

25%

Control Plane & Day-2 Lifecycle

Managed vs. self-managed control plane and its SLA; how Kubernetes version upgrades roll (in-place, surge, blue-green) and how disruptive they are to running pods; long-term-support version options; CVE patch cadence and how quickly fixes reach the fleet; automated node remediation and certificate rotation

20%

Fleet & Multi-Cluster Management

Single console and API to govern many clusters across clouds, on-prem, and edge; declarative cluster lifecycle and config (Cluster API or equivalent); fleet-wide policy and drift detection; zero-touch provisioning for edge; whether it manages clusters it did not create (imported/attached) or only its own

20%

Security & Compliance

Default-deny posture and admission control (Pod Security, OPA/Kyverno); image scanning and signing in the supply chain; RBAC plus OIDC/enterprise-identity integration; network policy and microsegmentation; CIS-benchmark conformance, audit logging, and FedRAMP/FIPS coverage where regulated

15%

Networking, Storage & Service Mesh

CNI options and how locked-in the default is; ingress and gateway controllers with TLS, rate-limiting, and WAF; CSI drivers for block/file/object and stateful-workload maturity; service mesh integration (Istio, Linkerd, Cilium); cross-cluster connectivity and load balancing

10%

Developer Experience & Self-Service

Namespace and cluster self-service vs. ticket-based provisioning; GitOps support (Argo CD, Flux) as a first-class workflow; developer portal and golden-path integration (Backstage or built-in console); IDE plugins and local-dev parity; how opinionated the platform is about how teams ship

10%

Cost, Portability & Commercial Model

Licensing unit (per-core, per-node, per-cluster, consumption) and how it scales with you; control-plane and extended-support fees; realistic exit cost and how provider-shaped the abstractions are; GPU/AI scheduling support; ecosystem breadth (operators, Helm, marketplace) and how much you must self-integrate

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Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS)

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Quick Facts

open-cluster-management.io

CategoryCloud Infrastructure

SubcategoryContainers & Kubernetes

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