IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Score7.5 out of 10

320 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Scalability and Performance: Users have highlighted the system's ability to scale efficiently while maintaining high availability and good performance, demonstrating its effectiveness in handling diverse workloads effectively. They appreciate how this feature enables them to adapt to changing demands seamlessly.

Support Quality: Reviewers consistently praise the top-notch support provided, underscoring its essential role in maximizing platform utilization and operational success. The reliable assistance ensures users can navigate any challenges with confidence.

Security Features: Customers find the enterprise security features to be robust, emphasizing their crucial contribution to data protection and compliance adherence within their workflows. The comprehensive security measures instill trust and peace of mind when dealing with sensitive information.

Reviews

85 Reviews

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service Power: Enterprise Deployment Simplified

Rating: 8 out of 10

March 18, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Built on the open source Kubernetes, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service provides an efficient container orchestration solution that helps to easily manage containerized workloads. The platform handles much of the three key features of the deployment complexity, including automation, capacity, and failure protection, as well as the rolling updates.

Pros

Identity and access management solutions, integrated into their infrastructure.
It also caters for the multiple cloud environments, otherwise known as a hybrid solution setting.
Another interesting feature is that it has seamless compatibility with other IBM cloud services such as databases and networking

Cons

User Interface Needs Improvement
Log Management Complexity
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is a very significant resource in terms of resource requirements

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service also stands out in environments where the workloads vary continuously and require befitting scale. The product excels particularly in microservices structures, wherein the companies would harness the capacity for container orchestration and automated scaling. Still, it may face the challenges due to monolith applications that have not been originally developed for using container technology.

Luis Abatista

Delivery Manager Middleware & Automation (Technology Integration) in Information Technology at Indra (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

My brief experience.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 26, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service for a short period while working on a project for a client. We needed a solution that was easy to manage and within our budget, so we went with IBM. The learning curve is not steep for those who have used similar services from other cloud providers.

Pros

Scalability
Usage
availability

Cons

Cloud console.
Fastness
Price

Likelihood to Recommend

This service fits very well for tasks that require integration with other IBM tools, is very similar to different cloud services that offer support for Kubernetes, and can be a good option for those looking to try a new platform. I would recommend its use in cases where scalability is a key factor.

Verified User

Analyst in Engineering (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Best modernize application in the market

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

September 10, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

with the help of IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, we modernize our application infrastructure which enhance developer productivity it is also help to reduce the work pressure to the employee of the organization and also enhance the security and compliance for organization to provide safe Enviromental. we utilize to deploye data science and AI workload.

Pros

They provide to allowing team to focous on application development
it also provide better security features
Integration with other IBM cloud services

Cons

Would be there more effective user-friendly interface
Should be integration with other third party tool
Should be offer training program

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service are good for deployement and managing for the selected application and it is also good to develop new application fearures, Its cloud native features are also benifit for user of the organization so that they can easily to use from anywhere, It is low budget project and free or nominal price so that security are in risk

Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Knowledge orchestrator IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service platform

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 30, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We needed to find a reliable and scalable way to deploy secure and standalone instances for our cloud SaaS product. We chose IBM Cloud Kubernetes so we could deploy these instances as pods, and rely on the platform to manage itself.

Pros

The solution is scaleable
High availability and good performance so far
Support is of a high standard
Enterprise security

Cons

Interface still takes a while to get used to
Some documentation is difficult to find

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for deploying and managing large number of instances with confidence of high reliability.

Errol Brandt

Chief Innovation Officer in Corporate at Knowledge Orchestrator (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Review IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 27, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Services help us in tasks such as managing and deploying containerized services and microservices-based applications efficiently, it also has an orchestration layer for workloads and automation to easily scale and maintain the deployed applications. The IBM product addresses the principal necessity helping us to focus on developing the applications without worrying about the virtualization layer.

Pros

Automate and scaling workloads
IBM product integrations
DRP and HA

Cons

Close platform for own customizations
Not all Kubernets versions are supported

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is well suited for the following scenarios: Microservices-based applications deployments, Automating and scaling new workloads, Disaster Recovery, and High availability
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service may be less suited for the following scenarios: customization tasks for the deployed environments in the control plane, and running multi-cloud hybrid environments that need more integrated solutions.

Verified User

Consultant (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 18, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a container management platform, I use IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service to deploy and manage containerized applications on the cloud. IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service allows me to package software code, along with all dependencies, so it can run reliably on any system. IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service helps me to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Pros

Simplified cluster management
Security and isolation
Scalability

Cons

Setting up an IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster can be complex and involve managing different components.
The learning curve can be a bit steep for new users.
Managing resources can sometimes be a challenge.

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service is ideal for deploying modern applications on a microservices architecture -- where easy scaling and ability to update are important. IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service also handles automated deployments and load balancing very well, particularly if you're already working in the IBM Cloud ecosystem.

There are applications less suited to IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service -- such as very small applications, where managing an IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster would be overkill. Also, users not familiar with container organization might find IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service to be a challenge to manage effectively.

Stephen Rinaldi

Creative Director in Information Technology at BBI (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Verified on LinkedIn

Cost effective and easy to provision and manage

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

September 5, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our container infrastructure runs on IBM IKS which is a complete application layer with a tech stack of ruby on rails, javascript, GraphQL, and node applications, and hosts an in-memory Redis cluster for caching layer use. IBM provides pure Kubernetes(no touch-ups), which allows us to use the system easily with compatibilites.

Pros

automatic load balancer service
out of the box compatibilities
easy to provision clusters via terraform and UI

Cons

namespace container registry compatibilites
IKS version upgrade with terraform with zero down time - no documentation
Interactive IKS documentation help while deploying using UI - steps

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are an IBM customer or prospective, starting with IKS is relatively easy. Node Autoscaling feature is a click of a button and helps with config map value to set the values, IBM cloud is a little underrated, but it has very good products like IKS in classic and vpc. If you are starting your cloud journey, you should evaluate the IBM cloud specially IKS for cost efficiently.

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Good Managed Kubernetes offering if you already using IBM cloud services

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

February 14, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Explored IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service to understand its capabilities in case customers wants help with it

Pros

Openshift integration
Highly available masters
multi-zone clusters
integration with Watson API

Cons

user interface could be better
not heavily advertised
more manuals, and in general instructions would be helpfull

Likelihood to Recommend

It is good fit for existing IBM customers and for those who has expertise with OpenShift. Also great if you need integration with IBM cloud services.

Might not be your first choice if you have big footprint in other cloud providers

Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Plays nicer with others than AWS Fargate and ECS, however has many many moving parts

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 9, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Kubernetes has proven effective for orchestrating workloads. Have limited expansion with deploying on a limited number of nodes but it has had a streamlined process without any hiccups. Haven't had any issues with Kube managing deployments and keeping the required amount of replicas running. Cluster IPs are helpful for data reliability. Utilized it as part of AWS EKS which has some limitations with configuration options, but it has more compatibility than AWS's native ECS.

Pros

Cluster IPs
secure networking
compatibility with multiple CSPs
greater configuration than dockers

Cons

requires more user management
steep learning curve
susceptibility for malicious attacks due to large surface area

Likelihood to Recommend

Good for deploying workloads, without having to be an expert in all underlying components, especially for Managed Kubernetes Services. However, this leads to an inability to troubleshoot without having a solid understanding of the control plane. Good alternative if you have some services that are unable to migrate completely to cloud environment.

Jon Brizuela

Cloud Security Architect in Information Technology at Valhalla Road LLC (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

IBM Kubernetes is good

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 8, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The use cases for IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service include deployment and management of cloud-native applications, microservices, and containerized applications.

For our use case, The business problems addressed by IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service include:

The complexity of managing large-scale applications
Increased time and resources required for infrastructure management
Inefficient application deployment and scaling
Ensuring consistency in application environments

Pros

Manages kubernetes deployments with ease
Spin up pods really fast
good access control to share limited levels of access

Cons

Installation fails during container creation due to a Docker 18.03.1 issue
If you roll back to version 3.2.0 from a fix pack version, the version file can still show the fix pack version
If you roll back to version 3.2.0 from a fix pack version, the Status column on the Helm releases page in the console might not show the status properly for some Helm releases

Likelihood to Recommend

The business problems addressed by IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service include

Complexity of managing large-scale applications
Increased time and resources required for infrastructure management
Inefficient application deployment and scaling
Ensuring consistency in application environments

This means, we can deploy our microservices in IBM kubernetes service without any problems and provide and build a reliable product

Verified User

Engineer in Research & Development (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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