As cloud-native adoption increases, enterprises are turning to managed SRE services to address infrastructure complexity
Kubernetes won. According to VMware research, over 60% of enterprises are now running containerized workloads on the platform, and that number continues to grow. But victory came with an unexpected cost: operational complexity that even experienced engineering teams struggle to manage.
The irony is striking. Enterprises have adopted Kubernetes to simplify infrastructure management and accelerate deployment cycles. Instead, many find themselves drowning in configuration files, searching for unknown network issues, and spending a lot of time resolving platform-related issues – according to the Komodor 2025 Enterprise Kubernetes Report, platform teams lose an average of 34 working days per year to troubleshooting and incident resolution.
The complexity crisis
The numbers tell a sobering story. Despite the maturity and widespread adoption of Kubernetes, some practitioners report persistent production issues with their clusters. The platform’s flexibility – one of its greatest strengths – becomes a liability when teams lack deep expertise in networking, storage, security and cluster management.
Configuration drift remains an ongoing problem. Even with infrastructure-as-code practices, teams struggle to maintain consistency between development, staging, and production environments. According to the Komodor 2025 Enterprise Kubernetes Report, 79% of Kubernetes incidents are due to recent system changes, highlighting how difficult it is to predict the cascading effects of configuration changes.
The learning curve is steep and unforgiving. Kubernetes requires an understanding of not only container orchestration, but also networking concepts, storage provisioning, security policies, and cloud provider integrations. For teams already overburdened with delivering product features, acquiring and maintaining this expertise diverts resources from core business objectives.
The shortage of skilled workers exacerbates the problem
Even organizations committed to building internal Kubernetes expertise face a frightening reality: There simply aren’t enough qualified engineers. According to data from Glassdoor, demand for DevOps jobs has increased by 38% over the past year, while SRE salaries in the US and European markets are among the highest in the IT industry. This talent shortage and the cost of expertise presents a significant barrier to companies considering developing an in-house SRE team.
The talent shortage goes beyond base pay. Retaining Kubernetes experts requires ongoing training, conference attendance, and professional development opportunities. Teams need multiple specialists to avoid single points of failure. This means that companies must successfully hire, onboard and retain multiple expensive engineers to ensure stable operations.
For medium-sized companies that compete with well-financed tech giants, the math often doesn’t work. Building a four- or five-person SRE team capable of providing 24/7 coverage requires significant investment considering salaries, benefits, training, and tools—before adding a single new application feature. This cost-benefit analysis varies significantly by region, making in-house SRE teams economically unfeasible for many companies.
The SRE managed services response
This convergence of complexity and talent shortages has accelerated the growth of managed DevOps and SRE services. Instead of building in-house expertise from the ground up, companies are increasingly partnering with specialized vendors that have deep Kubernetes knowledge and best operational practices.
The model is fundamentally different from traditional managed services. Instead of opaque black boxes, modern DevOps-as-a-Service providers like Palark value transparency and knowledge transfer. Teams get direct Slack access to experienced engineers, visibility into all infrastructure work through shared Kanban boards, and predictable flat-rate pricing that makes budget planning hassle-free.
Technical depth is crucial. Companies aren’t looking for vendors that simply stick to runbooks – they need partners that can contribute to Kubernetes itself, understand the platform at the code level, and build solutions that align with evolving best practices. The fact that Palark is among the top 100 global contributors to the Kubernetes project reflects this level of technical commitment.
What actually makes it work
Effective SRE managed services combine several technical capabilities that address the root causes of Kubernetes complexity:
Issues are identified through proactive monitoring and observability before they become issues affecting users. Instead of reacting to outages, experienced SRE teams look for new trends in metrics, logs, and traces that indicate impending outages. This requires advanced alerting that strikes a balance between sensitivity and action. It takes years to learn this skill.
Infrastructure-as-Code automation stops configuration drift by treating all infrastructure changes as code that can be reviewed and versioned. Because teams know that what worked in staging will work in production, they can confidently drive change through environments. Automated testing finds errors in configurations before they impact critical systems.
CI/CD pipeline optimization transforms deployment from a concern to a reliable, repeatable process. Properly configured pipelines enable multiple daily deployments with built-in rollback capabilities, progressive deployment, and automated testing. This speed advantage increases over time as teams deliver features faster without sacrificing stability.
Security integration integrates DevSecOps practices throughout the infrastructure lifecycle, rather than just addressing security at the end stage. Container image scanning, network policy enforcement, secrets management, and compliance monitoring are automated, rather than manual audit checklist items.
Business impact beyond technology
The value of managed SRE services extends beyond technical metrics to tangible business results. Development teams are refocusing on product differentiation rather than infrastructure firefighting.
Leadership teams benefit from the assurance that critical systems are continually monitored, often with formal service level agreements. Some managed SRE providers like Palark offer fast response times and continuous monitoring as part of their core services. The predictable monthly cost structure makes financial planning easier compared to the variable costs of building internal teams.
Perhaps most importantly, companies retain the flexibility to increase or decrease support based on business needs. Product launches, seasonal traffic peaks and periods of growth require varying levels of attention to infrastructure – managed services adapt without requiring long lead times to hire and onboard new team members.
I’m looking forward to
As Kubernetes evolves, operational complexity doesn’t disappear – it evolves. The introduction of service mesh, multi-cluster management and hybrid cloud strategies bring new challenges that require in-depth expertise to successfully address.
The companies that do well don’t always have the largest engineering teams or the most money. They know that infrastructure excellence is not their core competency, so they work with experts who have already learned the ropes and built the operational muscle memory that comes from managing hundreds of production clusters.
For European companies embarking on digital transformation, partnering with experienced managed SRE providers provides a convenient way to access operational expertise across hundreds of production clusters. This approach allows companies to focus on their core business rather than managing the complexity of Kubernetes infrastructure.
The complexity challenge of Kubernetes is real, but so are the solutions. Companies willing to look beyond traditional build-versus-buy frameworks are discovering that strategic partnerships can deliver both technical excellence and business agility.
Daily Sparkz works with external contributors. All contributor content is reviewed by the Daily Sparkz editorial team.
