Kubernetes solves a lot of problems (such as autoscaling and reliability), but also introduces complexity, especially for developers trying to manage their apps on K8s. Existing tools, such as kubectl and cluster dashboard, often fall short due to their complexity or lack of features.

The platform team at Condé Nast International operates a global platform serving over 60 developers, and a digital readership of more than 80m articles monthly. They aim to deliver self-service solutions to increase developer productivity, reduce mean time to recovery, and provide a "single pane of glass" overview of applications running on the platform, focussing on deployment, observability, and namespace management.

In this talk Josh discusses the pain experienced by developers using Kubernetes, details the existing solutions that were considered & where they fell short, and finally explores how CNI built a hybrid solution that utilised tools like Helm, along with a portal tailored to the needs of their users.