AKS vs Self-Managed Kubernetes: The Real Cost of Control
A demo article exploring when managed Kubernetes is the right operational tradeoff.
This demo article shows how a future post about Kubernetes platform choices will appear on the site.
Start with the control plane
With AKS, Azure operates the Kubernetes control plane. Your team still owns workload reliability, node pools, networking choices, upgrades, policy, and observability. Self-management makes sense when a concrete requirement cannot be met by a managed service.
Compare total cost
The useful comparison includes engineering time for upgrades, incident response, security patching, platform testing, and maintenance—not just compute cost.
For many product teams, managed Kubernetes lets platform engineers spend more time improving paved roads, guardrails, and developer experience.