Decision criteria for staying on VMs versus adopting Kubernetes—based on team size, blast radius and operational maturity.
The question
Kubernetes is the default answer in many architecture discussions. It is not always the right first move.
When EC2 (or ASG) is enough
- Small services surface with predictable scaling signals
- Team lacks dedicated platform capacity for upgrades, add-ons and failure modes
- Compliance boundaries favor fewer moving parts and clearer ownership
- Latency-sensitive workloads where extra hops and control-plane coupling do not buy much
When Kubernetes earns its complexity
- Many services sharing a common release, observability and quota model
- Elastic batch or multi-tenant patterns that benefit from scheduling primitives
- Mature SRE ownership and documented upgrade windows
Practical takeaway
Choose the smallest platform that preserves rollback safety, observability and clear ownership. You can always migrate later with fewer surprises if the operational baseline is already solid.
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