Cloud Architecture Patterns
Vendor-neutral theory for designing Kubernetes on any cloud provider.
This section covers the architectural decisions that apply across every cloud: managed vs self-managed trade-offs, multi-cluster strategies, cloud IAM integration patterns, and VPC network topologies. These concepts transfer across all three hyperscalers — and they land best once you have already worked through at least one provider’s essentials and managed-Kubernetes deep dive (EKS, GKE, or AKS), so you can recognize each pattern in concrete form before generalizing it across clouds.
Modules
Section titled “Modules”| # | Module | Complexity | Time | What You’ll Learn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Managed vs Self-Managed Kubernetes | [MEDIUM] | 2h | Trade-offs, decision frameworks, TCO analysis |
| 2 | Multi-Cluster and Multi-Region Architectures | [COMPLEX] | 3h | Topology patterns, failover, service mesh, federation |
| 3 | Cloud IAM Integration for Kubernetes | [MEDIUM] | 2.5h | Pod-level identity, OIDC federation, least privilege |
| 4 | Cloud-Native Networking and VPC Topologies | Advanced | 3.5h | CIDR planning, CNI models, IP exhaustion, peering |
Total time: ~11 hours
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- Cloud Native 101 — containers, Docker basics
- Basic Kubernetes knowledge (Pods, Deployments, Services)
- At least one provider path first — a Provider Essentials section plus its managed-Kubernetes deep dive (AWS Essentials -> EKS, GCP Essentials -> GKE, or Azure Essentials -> AKS). Architecture & Enterprise reasons about cross-provider tradeoffs and assumes you already understand one provider’s primitives.
What’s Next
Section titled “What’s Next”Continue along the Architecture & Enterprise route:
- Advanced Operations — multi-account strategies, transit hubs, cross-cluster networking, DR, and active-active at enterprise scale
(The provider deep dives — EKS, GKE, AKS — come before this section, not after: they produce the provider primitives Architecture & Enterprise assumes.)