State of Play: Kubernetes Platforms

An annual review of the Kubernetes Platforms market, with answers from the vendors in it.

November 4, 2026

State of Play 2026: Kubernetes Platforms

Kubernetes ships a new version about every four months, and the managed services charge six times the standard cluster fee to stay on an old one. Where the market stands in 2026, what each kind of platform costs where prices are public, and what an upgrade or a move requires.

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Job 01

Decide where AI goes in the business

The board wants an AI plan, and every function wants to go first.

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Compare Amazon EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher Prime, Broadcom's VMware Tanzu, Mirantis, and Spectro Cloud on the question that decides a Kubernetes platform — who carries day-2 operations across a growing fleet, not whose demo cluster spins up fastest.

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Job 04

Control technology spend

AI is billed per use, so its cost grows with adoption while the rest of the budget is under review.

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