k0rdent: Helping Platform Engineers Meet Modern Infrastructure Challenges

This white paper details the evolving challenges of modern platform engineering and the role of k0rdent, an open-source Distributed Container Management Environment (DCME), in addressing them. As organizations scale AI/ML workloads across clouds, data centers, and edge environments, platform teams must manage increasing complexity, optimize costly infrastructure, and ensure security and compliance. k0rdent leverages Kubernetes-native technologies like ClusterAPI to unify cluster management, automate workload placement, and streamline MLOps, empowering platform engineers to build scalable, efficient, and adaptable infrastructure solutions.

Readers will learn:

• How Kubernetes multi-cluster strategies are replacing traditional large shared clusters for better agility, security, and cost efficiency.

• Why AI/ML workloads demand new infrastructure approaches, including optimized resource allocation and multi-cloud portability.

• How k0rdent automates cluster lifecycle management, service orchestration, and observability while supporting both proprietary and open-source components.

• The role of k0rdent in improving GPU and AI accelerator utilization, reducing operational overhead, and enabling intelligent workload mobility.

• How its declarative, template-driven approach empowers platform teams to build scalable, self-service Integrated Developer Platforms (IDPs).