Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Deploy, operate, and scale managed Kubernetes clusters on Google Cloud Platform.

When to Use

• Running containerized microservices at scale with automatic scaling and healing
• Workloads requiring fine-grained orchestration, service mesh, or custom scheduling
• Teams already invested in Kubernetes tooling (Helm, Argo CD, Flux)
• When Cloud Run's request-based model does not fit (long-running, stateful workloads)

Prerequisites

• Google Cloud SDK (gcloud) and kubectl installed
• APIs enabled: Kubernetes Engine, Compute Engine
• IAM role roles/container.admin for cluster management