Game Over on the Bill: Playing the Cost Tetris in Kubernetes
summary
Shows how to turn usage×price into USD/hour cost metrics for Kubernetes by calling cloud price APIs and joining them to PromQL-based usage (150–200 lines) with a recording rule, using namespace as the billing unit. Describes practical cost-reduction work: identifying ~40% initial node waste reduced to ~30–33% after a quarter and briefly to 20% using Carpenter, and building a custom VPA controller plus right‑sizing and dummy pods to stabilize autoscaling when stability issues arose.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:27Invoice as engineering problem
- 8:46Node packaging waste
- 17:37Pod resource waste
- 24:35Cost visibility and accountability
- 30:19Q&A
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