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16 Mar, 2023

Forecasting and Managing Kubernetes Costs

There are countless advantages to using containers. However, even after organizations transform their infrastructure, they may continue to encounter similar problems in accurately predicting and managing the costs for hosting workloads in Kubernetes (K8s). The main issues are indicating appropriate CPU and memory reservations, sizing containers, and scheduling clusters. These ongoing issues pose a significant challenge for DevOps teams responsible for managing cloud costs or budget-minded cloud infrastructure owners. This article will explore the common challenges faced when forecasting and managing Kubernetes costs and how Uniskai by Profisea Labs can successfully handle them.

Forecasting Kubernetes Costs

Even after transitioning to Kubernetes, organizations may experience difficulties in predicting the costs of hosting workloads as numerous factors have to be considered, such as CPU and memory reservations, container sizes, etc. It can also be challenging to accurately predict costs when multiple teams are involved in infrastructure management as each team may have a different understanding of workload requirements.

Steps to forecast Kubernetes costs on AWS

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a popular managed Kubernetes service that allows organizations to deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters on AWS. Forecasting EKS costs involves estimating the resources and services that will be used in the deployment and considering the various pricing models that AWS offers.

Here are some steps to forecast Kubernetes costs on AWS:

AWS EKS pricing specifications

The pricing model for Amazon EKS consists of two parts: a fee of $0.10 per hour for each Amazon EKS cluster you set up and the cost of the AWS resources such as the Amazon EC2 instances and Amazon EBS volumes you use within each cluster.

For example, if you run your containerized workloads on a single Amazon EKS cluster in the AWS US East (Ohio) region with six Kubernetes worker nodes on Amazon EC2, using t3.xlarge EC2 instances with 19GB EBS storage, your monthly cost would be:

Estimating the cost of using Kubernetes in real-world scenarios is considerably more complex since it is influenced by several factors, including:

  • Cluster Overhead Costs (e.g., cluster management fee - EKS Control Plane hourly price).

  • Unpredictable workloads when using automatic cluster scaling (via Cluster Autoscaler or Karpenter).

As a result, billing and reporting on Kubernetes costs are challenging, primarily because Kubernetes clusters are often shared services with numerous teams running diverse applications.

Managing Kubernetes Costs

Managing AWS EKS costs is essential for organizations using the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service. Here are some tips to help you manage your EKS costs:

Uniskai by Profisea Labs

Uniskai by Profisea Labs is the most comprehensive AI-driven multicloud cost optimization platform available and can save you up to 75% of your monthly cloud bills via rich cloud network visibility:

  • Uniskai's dashboard provides a comprehensive, real-time visualization of cloud environments, particularly Kubernetes clusters, and presents insights on savings in the current month, costs saved across a period, and potential savings.

  • Cloudview gives real-time cloud visualization in several formats: as a list of environments (Cloudlist), architectural diagrams (Cloudmap), and network diagrams (Cloudnet).

Uniskai by Profisea Labs also gives you a wide range of cloud management, security, and cost-saving features.

  • Waste Manager. Uniskai's Waste Manager (WM) catalogs orphaned Elastic IPs, AMIs, EBS Volumes, Snapshots, and EC2s in one panel with an ability to remove the waste within seconds directly from the Uniskai platform.

  • Cloudsitter. Uniskai's Cloudsitter allows you to easily control, stop/run Amazon EKS from the scheduling panel, and get AI-powered recommendations.

  • Spot Management. Uniskai develops an effective Spot Management strategy that efficiently shelters spotted instances from termination.

  • Uniskai's Cloudguard provides valuable cloud security insights and alerts to protect your data and infrastructure, offering security threat tracking with automated advice on how to forecast and resolve them.

  • Uniskai's Logs track changes and collect all system updates, ensuring a well-organized monitoring system.

Final thoughts

Kubernetes has become a popular container orchestration platform, and with its increasing adoption, businesses are keen to find ways to manage their cloud costs more effectively. Uniskai by Profisea Labs is the most comprehensive cloud cost optimization platform available to help companies forecast and manage their Kubernetes costs.

With real-time cost monitoring, optimization, and increased efficiency, Uniskai can help businesses optimize their resources and allocate their funds more effectively.