As Gov’t Agencies Turn to K8s, Cost Control is Critical
Federal agencies’ cloud modernization initiatives are accelerating, spurred along by fresh budgets and new processes. Last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget introduced a modernization framework that raised the pressure on agencies to complete these transformations. Congress has driven this imperative for change on the funding front, making the Technology Modernization Fund, IT Oversight and Reform Account and other sources available to ensure federal agencies have the IT budgets they need. These moves precipitated the Pentagon’s recent ground-up retooling of its software acquisition process, as well as the new secure software factory model and modernization strategy introduced by the Department of Defense. Cloud-fueled technology change is happening at the federal level—but it is not without challenges.
A case in point is Kubernetes. As part of their cloud transformations, many (if not most) technology leaders at federal agencies planning out their long-term cloud strategies now consider Kubernetes as an essential and foundational component. By implementing modernization via a container-based strategy, agencies can reinvent the processes by which they develop applications and ensure that the latest versions of those applications can fully harness the benefits of the cloud. Kubernetes orchestration enables agencies to make the most of their containerized infrastructures with more efficient resource deployments, faster and more responsive application development and rapid on-demand scaling. In many cases, federal agencies putting these capabilities in place via Kubernetes are just catching up to contemporary practices.
Kubernetes Costs Must be Kept in Check
Federal agencies pursuing Kubernetes modernization must nevertheless proceed with caution, as Kubernetes-related cloud expenses can quickly get out of hand. We often see agencies waste 40% to 50% on Kubernetes-related spending until they implement effective Kubernetes cost visibility ownership, culture and strategy.
Federal agencies can incentivize internal teams to prioritize efficiency and take responsibility for Kubernetes costs by introducing showbacks that detail each team’s Kubernetes spending data or chargebacks that make teams pay for cost overages out of their own budgets. There is much room for improvement here: According to the latest Cloud Native Computing Foundation FinOps report, accurate and effective showback or chargeback programs are active in less than 20% of organizations. Without granular insight into Kubernetes spending, cloud bills can soar with overprovisioned, underutilized instances. Federal agencies with Kubernetes at the heart of their cloud modernization need to have cloud cost visibility, accountability and governance processes in place to make their initiatives successful.
Building a Mature Cost-Responsible Culture
Most federal agencies take a similar path as they adopt Kubernetes and mature in their cost management capabilities. Modernizing agencies do generally recognize the need for effective Kubernetes cost management early on. However, most agencies start off on the wrong foot, exploring generalized cloud cost management strategies that lack the specific functionality that Kubernetes spending controls require.
The key is to achieve granular Kubernetes cost visibility so the contracts officers and program managers can easily, accurately and transparently understand which stakeholders are responsible for what costs. DevOps, software developers and application owners can then be held directly accountable for cost inefficiencies under their purview, allowing agencies to enforce more efficient consumption of cloud resources. With these granular insights into Kubernetes resource consumption, programs can take this data to develop and inform their cost model. This cost model serves as the baseline to have an official showback or chargeback policy in place.
With greater maturity, agencies are able to ingrain Kubernetes cost awareness and accountability as cultural values. Backed by chargebacks and accurate cost models, each internal team leveraging Kubernetes is incentivized and empowered to make data-driven decisions and take financial responsibility for its own spending. Granular cost visibility informs teams exactly where to address overprovisioning, errors and other spending inefficiencies to optimize Kubernetes costs. At the same time, teams can command Kubernetes’ rapid infrastructure scalability as necessary to address high-traffic events—and do so without allowing cost-inefficiencies to trigger expensive incidents.
At the final stage of maturity, federal agencies introduce automated governance models that proactively enforce priorities, including budget targets, spending shifts, and efficiency goals. These systems are able to alert teams to cost overages in real-time and automatically remediate errors and issues that would otherwise become quite costly.
Control Costs for Effective Modernization
Kubernetes-driven modernization unlocks a range of benefits for federal agencies. Expedited application deployment, agile scalability, improved security and other advantages become available with a thoughtful Kubernetes implementation.
That said, Kubernetes modernization hinges on cost and resource optimization. Even with increasing budgets, agencies’ cloud goals can be devastated by wasted spending. By integrating granular cost visibility strategies and building a culture that values responsibility and cost efficiency, federal agencies can ensure their Kubernetes transformations succeed.
