So Do We Really Need Kubernetes in 2025

kim monzon

kim monzon

— 3 min read
So Do We Really Need Kubernetes in 2025
Photo by Growtika / Unsplash

A Developer’s Shortcut to Reality

🧬 Now with AI in the Loop… Everything Changes

  • Decisions are made in seconds.
  • Ideas live or die in a day.
  • Your co-workers are half-human, half-robot — assisted by GPTs, Copilots, cron-agents, or internal LLM tools.

From FTP to full-stack infra, we’ve evolved.

In 2025, everyone is full-stack — and they specialize super fast.

Speed is the game.
You either ship, or your idea disappears in the noise.

Timeline: How We Got Here

  1. FileZilla Era (Pre-2010)
    Just drag-and-drop. Apache handled the rest.
  2. Docker Era (2013–2018)
    Build once, run anywhere. We got control.
  3. Kubernetes Boom (2018–2023)
    We needed orchestration, resilience, and scaling.
  4. 2025: AI-Native World
    You’re running:Now it’s LLM + vector + agent + user feedback — not just "deploy a server".
    • Embedding services
    • RAG pipelines
    • Fine-tuned open-source LLMs
    • Vector DBs (Qdrant, Weaviate, Chroma)
    • Cron GPT agents
    • Internal APIs that think and adapt

Should You Still Use Kubernetes?

Yes — but only when you actually need it.

Kubernetes isn’t dead. It’s just no longer the default.

When Kubernetes Makes Sense

Use Case Kubernetes? Why
Full-stack ML/RAG pipeline ✅ Yes Orchestrate many connected services
Multi-tenant SaaS ✅ Yes Isolation, secrets, policy control
Custom AI API with multiple models ✅ Yes Scale, logging, background jobs
GPU orchestration & autoscaling ✅ Yes GKE, EKS w/ GPU node pools

When You Don’t Need It

Use Case Use Instead
MVPs, frontend-heavy apps v0.dev, Vercel, Render
Simple Docker-based APIs ECS, Fly.io, Railway
Cron-based GPT agents Lambda, Modal, Baseten
Fast GPT experiments Docker Compose + cron

Code configuration comparison

Kubernetes (Full YAML)

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: gpt-api
spec:
  replicas: 2
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: api
          image: yourregistry/gpt-api

very docker-compose syntax

Fly.io

fly launch
fly deploy

fly command

AWS ECS Copilot

copilot init
copilot deploy

aws

Nomad

job "gpt-agent" {
  group "default" {
    task "serve" {
      driver = "docker"
      config {
        image = "gpt-agent:latest"
      }
    }
  }
}

In the Age of AI, Infra Is a Weapon

Role What You Need
GPT app builder Fast deploy (Fly.io, Railway)
RAG pipeline dev Compose, ECS, then K8s when scaling
Vector DB hosting Use Docker + volume or manage via K8s for scale
AI Infra Team You’ll need Kubernetes + CI + observability

2025 Is a Tech-Stack Mindset Shift

For developers who know what they’re doing...now is your time. Starting this year, velocity, iteration, and AI-powered thinking are the advantage. If you’re working like this, you’re already outperforming.

  • Use what ships now.
  • Design for AI feedback loops.
  • Scale later...even if it’s Kubernetes.

You don’t need to reinvent DevOps, just use the one that works or just plug the right tools together, its the same as Reactjs is not always the right solution for every web projects. Google has to indexed still html pages.

And yes... I still use:

  • Jenkins, because it still gets the job done
  • n8n, for visual automations that make workflows click
  • Self-hosted everything, because ownership is power
  • Supabase, for instant Postgres + auth in one command or turn it off when you dont have a budget lolz...
  • Ollama, to run LLMs locally like magic
  • Langchain + RAG templates, to prototype AI agents in minutes
  • Qdrant, Weaviate, Chroma: vector DBs that just work
  • Cloudflare Workers, to ship serverless code at the edge
  • v0.dev or bolt.new, to generate UIs while you sip coffee
We’re not chasing vibes anymore...we’re building modular, AI-powered workstations.
Fast to ship. Easy to own. Smart enough to grow with you.

Learn It, Leverage It

If you're an experienced dev or IT engineer, the stack is finally friendly again:

  • No more waiting for DevOps.
  • No more Kubernetes bootcamps (unless you really need it).
  • Just smart tools, clear goals, and real ownership.

Learn what's out there. Try it. Stack it. Ship it.
This is the dream workflow:
Code → Automate → Deploy → Fine-tune → help your company Profit.

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