GKE overview

Autopilot Standard

This page provides an overview of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). GKE is a managed implementation of the Kubernetes open source container orchestration platform. Kubernetes was developed by Google, drawing on years of experience operating production workloads at scale on Borg, Google's in-house cluster management system. With GKE, you can deploy and operate your own containerized applications at scale using Google Cloud's infrastructure.

This page is for Operators and Developers who are looking for a scalable, automated, managed Kubernetes solution. To learn more about common roles, see Common GKE user roles and tasks.

Get started with GKE

You can start exploring GKE in minutes.

Get started in Google Cloud console
Try the quickstart to deploy a containerized web application.
Read the Autopilot overview, which has guidance and resources for planning and operating your platform.

When to use GKE

GKE is ideal if you need a platform that lets you configure the infrastructure that runs your containerized apps, such as networking, scaling, hardware, and security. GKE provides the operational power of Kubernetes while managing many of the underlying components, such as the control plane and nodes, for you.

Benefits of GKE

The following table describes some of the benefits of using GKE as your managed Kubernetes platform:

GKE benefits
Platform management	Fully-managed nodes in GKE Autopilot mode with built-in hardening and best practice configurations automatically applied. Managed upgrade experience with release channels to improve security, reliability, and compliance. Flexible maintenance windows and exclusions that let you configure upgrade type and scope to meet business needs and architecture constraints. Automatic scaling of nodes based on the number of Pods in the cluster with Autopilot mode. Node auto-repair to maintain node health and availability. Fleet-based team management. Connect gateway. Built-in logging and monitoring. Google Cloud integrated CI/CD options with Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy.
Improved security posture	Hardened node operating system for apps: Container-Optimized OS. Built-in security measures. Policy Controller. Automatic upgrades to new GKE versions. Integrated security posture monitoring tooling with the security posture dashboard. Google Cloud logging and monitoring integrations with Google Cloud Observability.
Cost optimization	In Autopilot mode, pay only for the compute resources your running Pods request. Save costs by running fault-tolerant workloads, such as batch jobs, on Spot Pods. Minimized operational overhead in Autopilot mode because Google Cloud manages both the nodes and the control plane.
Reliability and availability	Highly-available control plane and worker nodes in Autopilot mode. Proactive monitoring and recommendations to mitigate potential workload disruptions caused by upcoming deprecations. Multi-cluster Service capabilities.

Best practice:

Configure the application CI/CD pipeline to use Cloud Build, Cloud Deploy, and Artifact Registry. By using managed build and deployment services, you can optimize for security, scale, and simplicity.

Use cases for GKE

GKE and Kubernetes are used in a variety of industries, including robotics, healthcare, retail, education, gaming, and financial services. Examples of workloads you can run include:

AI and ML operations
Data processing at scale
Scalable online games platforms
Reliable applications under heavy load

For case studies by industry and application, refer to Google Cloud customers.

How GKE works

A GKE environment consists of nodes, which are Compute Engine virtual machines (VMs), that are grouped together to form a cluster. You package your apps (also called workloads) into containers. You deploy sets of containers as Pods to your nodes. You use the Kubernetes API to interact with your workloads, including administering, scaling, and monitoring.

Kubernetes clusters have a set of management nodes called the control plane, which run system components such as the Kubernetes API server. In GKE, Google Cloud manages the control plane and system components for you. In Autopilot mode, which is the recommended way to run GKE, Google Cloud also manages your worker nodes. Google Cloud automatically upgrades component versions for improved stability and security, ensuring high availability, and ensuring integrity of data stored in the cluster's persistent storage.

For more information, refer to GKE cluster architecture.

Best practice:

If you run your workloads in VMs, consider using Migrate for GKE to containerize the workloads without having to rewrite apps or modify source code.

Kubernetes versions and features

GKE automatically upgrades your control plane to new Kubernetes versions that add new features and improvements in the open source project. The Kubernetes version selected for auto-upgrades depends on the stable version in the GKE release channel you select when you create the cluster. You can also manually upgrade your control plane to a different Kubernetes version than the version GKE selects for an upgrade. For detailed information on versions and upgrades, refer to the release notes and GKE versioning and upgrades.

GKE includes most beta and stable Kubernetes features. You can use beta APIs in 1.24 and later.

Modes of operation

GKE in Google Cloud has one mode of operation, Autopilot, which offers a fully managed experience. GKE Standard clusters are unavailable in Google Cloud.