While many organizations have an existing Kubernetes footprint, far fewer are using Kubernetes in production, and even less are operating at scale. 

Building an application platform on top of Kubernetes requires more engineering effort from a platform perspective but takes advantage of Kubernetes extensibility, allowing you to create something that aligns with the needs of developers, infrastructure teams, and the business. Some of the considerations you face may include: 

Enable growing demand for developers to package applications in containers. 
Move away from “ticket-based” infrastructure provisioning and deliver ways to build self-service API mechanisms. 

• Avoid vendor lock-in as you build atop of APIs. 
• Fulfill regulatory requirements to run mostly on-premises.
• Support your bare metal fleet along with your vSphere-enabled data center. 

This book written by Josh Rosso, Rich Lander, Alexander Brand & John Harris charts out the key considerations engineering teams must look at in order to successfully define a path to production with Kubernetes at enterprise scale.