Organizations that run Kubernetes clusters in cloud native environments should do so in a way that’s both operationally efficient and cost effective. However, many organizations don’t prioritize cost optimization until it becomes a pressing need. This may be due to a directive from senior leadership, a significant scale-up or migration of Kubernetes clusters, or an unexpected surge in the cloud bill.

Startups often face challenges in balancing rapid development with robust infrastructure. DevOps can be the solution, but selecting the right tools can be overwhelming. Achieving a good balance of cost, scaling, security, efficiency improvement, learning curve, rapid product releases, etc. is not easy. But worry not, we will solve this problem for you today. I've compiled some of the best DevOps tools that will make the DevOps journey of a startup easier.

Kubernetes 1.31 brings a plethora of enhancements, including 37 line items tracked as ‘Graduating’ in this release. From these, 11 enhancements are graduating to stable, including the highly anticipated AppArmor support for Kubernetes, which includes the ability to specify an AppArmor profile for a container or pod in the API, and have that profile applied by the container runtime.

Cloud-native applications continue to evolve and grow in complexity. And that complexity hurts the most when managing Kubernetes costs in Azure. AKS cost optimization may seem obvious, but it might also seem difficult to achieve. Microsoft’s fully managed Kubernetes service can help you run, manage, and deploy containerized applications. And while it optimizes performance, it can cause unexpected costs when improperly managed.