Still evaluating whether Kubernetes is right for your business? Start with Kubernetes for enterprises. If you have already made the decision and are worried about budget, jump to how much it costs to implement Kubernetes.
Let's clear up the misunderstanding: they are all Kubernetes
Kubernetes is an open source project of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It is the de facto standard for orchestrating containers: it decides where each application runs, restarts it if it fails, scales it when demand rises and replaces it without downtime when you ship a new version.
What changes between "flavors" is not the engine, but what comes on top and who answers when something breaks at 3 in the morning:
- "Vanilla" Kubernetes gives you the pure engine. You decide on and integrate everything else: networking, security, monitoring, CI/CD, user management.
- A managed cloud (EKS, GKE, AKS) operates the control plane for you, but the rest of the ecosystem remains your responsibility.
- OpenShift is a complete "batteries included" platform with enterprise support —whether self-managed or as a managed service in the cloud (ROSA, ARO).
- VMware Tanzu / VKS brings Kubernetes to an existing VMware world.
The right choice depends on where you stand today.
Path 1 — Managed Kubernetes in the cloud (EKS, GKE, AKS)
Amazon EKS, Google GKE and Azure AKS give you managed Kubernetes: the provider maintains the control plane and you focus on your applications. It is the natural option if your company already lives in a cloud and has (or can outsource) the platform engineering muscle.
It fits when:
- You are already committed to AWS, Google Cloud or Azure and want to leverage its ecosystem.
- Your team has cloud-native maturity or you have a partner to operate the platform.
- You prefer to pay by consumption and grow elastically without platform licenses.
The hidden cost: "managed" refers to the control plane, not everything else. Security, policies, observability, pipelines and governance remain yours. Without a solid platform team, that work piles up as technical debt.
Path 2 — Red Hat OpenShift
OpenShift takes Kubernetes and adds what a regulated enterprise needs from day one: hardened security by default, a web console, integrated CI/CD (pipelines and GitOps), an image registry, identity management and 24/7 enterprise support from Red Hat. It also runs the same on-premise, in your data center or in any cloud, which reduces lock-in to a specific cloud provider.
OpenShift is not only on-premise: it is also consumed as a managed service in the cloud. You have two ways to operate it. You can self-manage it —install and maintain it yourself in your data center or on the cloud you prefer— or consume it as a managed service jointly administered by Red Hat and the cloud provider: ROSA (Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS), ARO (Azure Red Hat OpenShift) or OpenShift Dedicated. In that mode you get OpenShift's enterprise layer —security, support and integrated tooling— with the operational convenience of a managed service, without having to operate the control plane yourself. It is, in fact, the most common entry point to OpenShift for companies that already live in AWS or Azure and don't want to build the platform from scratch.
It fits when:
- You operate in a regulated sector —banking, government, healthcare, insurance— where security, traceability and support with an SLA are non-negotiable.
- You have on-premise workloads or a hybrid model, and need the same platform everywhere.
- You prefer an integrated, supported product over assembling and maintaining dozens of open source components yourself.
- You want a multi-cloud strategy without rewriting your platform for each provider.
The hidden cost: OpenShift licenses have a price. The right question is not "how much does the license cost?", but "how much would it cost me to build and maintain all of that myself, including the team to operate it?". For many regulated organizations, OpenShift comes out cheaper than "vanilla" once you add the people. We develop this in the cost guide.
Path 3 — VMware Tanzu / VKS
VMware offers Kubernetes through Tanzu and VKS (vSphere Kubernetes Service). It is a powerful path, but with an important condition: it mainly makes sense if your company already has VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) or VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). In that case, you leverage the investment, the licenses and the VMware team you already have, and run containers alongside your virtual machines with a single management plane.
It fits when:
- You already run your infrastructure on VMware (VVF/VCF) and want to extend it to containers without introducing another management stack.
- Your operations team already masters vSphere and you want to capitalize on that knowledge.
The key nuance: VKS is not a good starting point from scratch. If you don't come from a VMware world, setting up VVF/VCF just to run Kubernetes is rarely the most efficient option. It is a path of leverage, not of initial adoption. Everything above makes sense when your team and your operations already know how VVF/VCF works: you take control of a familiar infrastructure, with networks and policies already defined and a license cost you are already paying anyway. Adding Kubernetes on top of that base leverages the operational knowledge your team already has, instead of forcing you to build a new capability from scratch. Seen this way, the question is not "VKS or a cloud?", but "how much of my VMware investment do I want to capitalize on before looking elsewhere?".
What no provider manages for you: your applications
Here is the most expensive misunderstanding of all. It doesn't matter whether you choose EKS, GKE or AKS, a managed OpenShift like ROSA or ARO, or VKS on VMware: what the provider operates is the platform, not your workloads. They hand you a healthy Kubernetes —available control plane, updated nodes, infrastructure kept current— and there their responsibility ends. What runs on top remains one hundred percent yours:
- Defining requests and limits of CPU and memory for each application. Without this, you either over-size the cluster and overpay, or your apps compete for resources and go down under load.
- The deployment: manifests, Helm, GitOps, release strategies (canary, blue-green) and the CI/CD pipeline that takes your code to the cluster.
- The observability of your applications: metrics, logs, traces and alerts that warn you before the user notices the problem. The provider monitors its platform, not your business.
- Network policies, workload security, secrets management and autoscaling tuned to your real traffic.
It is the shared responsibility model: the provider maintains the Kubernetes; you make your applications run well, scale and not go down. A managed but poorly operated cluster is as fragile as a self-managed one —only with a monthly bill attached.
This is where our expertise comes in. At Andes Digital we operate the workloads, not just the platform: we tune requests and limits, build the deployment and observability, and respond to incidents — on ROSA, ARO, VKS, EKS, GKE, AKS or whichever flavor you choose. As the only KCSP in South America, we operate what we implement. Learn about our managed Kubernetes services and how we combine them with observability and CI/CD.
Decision table
| Criterion | Managed cloud (EKS/GKE/AKS) | Red Hat OpenShift | VMware Tanzu / VKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best starting point | You are already in a public cloud | Regulated, on-prem or hybrid | You already have VVF/VCF |
| Enterprise support | From the cloud provider | 24/7 from Red Hat with SLA | From VMware/Broadcom |
| Lock-in | Medium-high (with the cloud) | Low (runs anywhere) | With the VMware ecosystem |
| Platform license cost | Included in consumption | Subscription license | VMware license |
| Team maturity required | High (or partner) | Medium (comes integrated) | Medium (if you already know VMware) |
| True multi-cloud | Limited | Yes | Partial |
The question that really matters: where do you stand today?
Instead of starting with the technology, start with your reality:
- Are you already in a public cloud? EKS/GKE/AKS is probably your shortest path.
- Do you operate in a regulated sector or have on-premise workloads? OpenShift gives you security, support and portability from the start.
- Do you already have VMware VVF/VCF? Evaluate Tanzu/VKS before bringing in another stack.
- Are you starting from scratch? VKS is almost never the right fit; the real decision is between a managed cloud and OpenShift, and it comes down to support, regulation and how much platform you want to operate yourself.
Why ask us for an unbiased second opinion
Most advisors sell a single platform, so their recommendation is already written. Andes Digital is a partner of Red Hat, VMware, AWS and Google Cloud at the same time, and the only Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) in South America certified by the CNCF. That means we gain nothing by pushing you toward a specific license: we win when you choose well and the platform sustains your business for years.
We have supported real migrations at public institutions and highly critical companies —you can see the case of IPS on Tanzu Kubernetes in Azure— and we operate what we implement. Learn about our Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu/VKS and cloud-native Kubernetes services.