Deck 2 turns the Kubernetes API into a production GKE platform

Foundations supplied the object model. This deck adds Google Cloud architecture, operations and failure modes before later decks broaden to other providers and cross-cutting disciplines.

1 · Foundations

Objects, control plane, scheduling, Services and storage.

2 · GKE

You are here: design and operate the managed Google platform.

3 · EKS

Map the same Kubernetes contract onto AWS.

4 · On-prem & AKS

Own more of the stack and troubleshoot it.

5 · Security

Hardening and multi-tenancy across environments.

6–7 · Operate & extend

Scale, lifecycle, networking, operators and AI serving.

Keep the portable Kubernetes core separate from provider-specific edges.

Deck 2 turns the Kubernetes API into a production GKE platform

The course sequence is easiest to understand by separating the Kubernetes contract from the Google Cloud implementation. This deck assumes you can read a Deployment, Service, PersistentVolumeClaim and HTTPRoute. It focuses on how GKE realizes those objects through Google Cloud systems. The Kubernetes objects stay familiar, but GKE supplies controllers, infrastructure and safe defaults around them. This is why a team can move from an on-premises cluster without rewriting every workload, while still needing to redesign networking, identity and operational ownership for the cloud environment.

A useful inspection step is `kubectl api-resources`. Read the output as evidence, not as a ritual: first confirm the desired object exists, then look at status conditions, events and the Google Cloud resource it represents. In production, capture the expected result in a runbook or automated check so an operator can distinguish slow reconciliation from a configuration error.

Production gotcha: Provider abstractions can hide important limits; portability is strongest in workload specs and weakest at networking, identity and storage edges. The safe habit is to verify quotas, regional availability and feature support against current Google Cloud documentation before rollout. The next slide compresses GKE into one request path.