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# One Platform Could Not Fit Them All

Internal platforms cost millions to build. Yet, 64% of developers bypass them. See how Kubera and Sveltos rapidly bootstrap scalable, customized Kubernetes environments without reinventing the wheel.

- **Speakers:** [Artem Lajko](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@artem-lajko)
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe - Virtual Stage
- **Published:** June 30, 2026
- **Duration:** 51:59
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1919-one-platform-could-not-fit-them-all

## Summary

Platform engineering has become increasingly chaotic as the cloud-native landscape expands, leading companies to hire engineers solely to manage individual tools like Backstage or Crossplane. Building an internal developer platform from scratch frequently takes around 18 months and $4 million, yet astonishingly, 64% of developers still try to bypass these expensive implementations. Recognizing that building yet another heavily opinionated platform is counterproductive, the team introduced Kubera, an open-source framework and CLI tool designed to quickly bootstrap tailored Kubernetes platforms. Using a GitOps foundation, Kubera creates a "hub and spoke" architecture where a central control plane seamlessly manages distributed workload clusters—whether on edge devices, bare metal, or various cloud providers—using customizable catalogs of add-ons and declarative configurations.

As platform requirements grow, managing thousands of clusters introduces severe scaling challenges. When attempting to simulate the management of 15,000 clusters, load testing revealed that relying solely on Argo CD creates bottlenecks; generating and caching manifests for tens of thousands of objects aggressively consumes memory, eventually crashing the repo server despite extensive fine-tuning. To overcome this, the team integrated Sveltos, an add-on controller uniquely suited for managing fleets of Kubernetes clusters. By leveraging Sveltos alongside Argo CD to deploy resources to hundreds of virtual clusters, they drastically reduced memory usage to roughly 1.5 GB while increasing the capacity to push or pull configurations efficiently at scale.

Transitioning a deeply technical framework from an inner-source initiative to a public open-source project involves much more than releasing code. Successfully building a community requires engineering teams to "treat your project like a product." This entails defining a clear value proposition, engaging with early adopters through open office hours, and establishing a recognizable identity—down to designing a "catchy logo" that developers actually want on their laptops. By actively navigating the legal, marketing, and adoption hurdles of open-sourcing, Kubera has evolved into a community-driven ecosystem that empowers platform teams to stop reinventing the wheel and reliably deliver scalable Kubernetes environments.

**Keywords:** platform engineering, internal developer platform, kubernetes benchmarking, gitops workflows, hub-and-spoke architecture, argo cd scaling, vcluster fleet management, sveltos add-on controller, edge cluster deployment, cloud native complexity, manifest hydration caching, kubernetes multi-tenancy, open source community building, inner-source transition, platform product management

## Chapters

1. **Introductions and core definitions for platform engineering** (00:00) — An overview of speaker backgrounds, agenda items, and key architectural definitions establishes a foundational understanding of the platform framework.
1. **Overcoming chaos and duplicate efforts in platform engineering** (03:08) — Integrating numerous tools from the cloud-native landscape causes duplicated platform building efforts across organizations.
1. **Bootstrapping Kubernetes platforms with the Kubera framework** (09:47) — A modular framework and command-line tool enables rapid deployment of complete customized Kubernetes platforms.
1. **Managing central control planes, distributed workloads, and applications** (11:41) — Three distinct use cases outline bootstrapping a central hub, managing edge clusters, and strict multi-tenant application scoping.
1. **Live demonstration of bootstrapping a central platform hub** (17:25) — Generating configuration files and templating a catalog provisions an initial GitOps engine and secret management integrations.
1. **Provisioning and connecting virtual clusters using GitOps paradigms** (24:25) — Using an app-of-apps pattern alongside the central hub dynamically deploys and manages remote virtual clusters.
1. **Exploring the centralized user interface and integrated security controls** (29:38) — The automatically provisioned portal features single sign-on integration, observability dashboards, and integrated compliance reports.
1. **Benchmarking GitOps engine constraints for extensive multi-cluster environments** (32:17) — Load tests expose severe memory usage and reconciliation slowdowns when managing massive numbers of applications and objects.
1. **Scaling multi-cluster management operations with the Sveltos controller** (40:50) — Integrating an add-on controller reduces memory dependencies drastically while expanding the overall capacity for managed environments.
1. **Transitioning a platform framework from inner-source to open-source** (44:23) — Transforming an internal tool into an open-source project requires managing external feedback, complex legal requirements, and consistent branding.

## Related Moments

- [Utilizing Kubernetes as a foundation for internal platforms](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/186-effective-java-strategies-and-architectures-for-clouds) (from "Effective Java Strategies and Architectures for Clouds")
- [Summarizing the organizational benefits of platform engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/885-platform-engineering-vs-devops-why-not-both) (from "Platform Engineering vs. DevOps Why not both?")
- [Running Kubernetes clusters efficiently on enterprise cloud platforms](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/89-development-of-reactive-applications-with-quarkus) (from "Development of reactive applications with Quarkus")
- [Introduction to cloud native infrastructure and platform engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/885-platform-engineering-vs-devops-why-not-both) (from "Platform Engineering vs. DevOps Why not both?")
- [Speaker background and open source Kubernetes edge computing projects](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100094-from-bytes-to-execution-writing-a-webassembly-runtime-in-rust) (from "From Bytes to Execution: Writing a WebAssembly Runtime in Rust")
- [Pivoting product strategy toward platform engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100122-how-agentic-devops-gave-us-dev-time-back) (from "How Agentic DevOps gave us Dev time back")

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