Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Deploy and scale containers on managed Kubernetes.
Simplify Kubernetes operations, build cloud-native apps, and innovate with AI and open-source technology.
OVERVIEW
Deploy and manage containerized applications at scale
- Shift your focus from infrastructure management to innovation. With automated provisioning, scaling, and updates, AKS Automatic enables teams to go from a container image to a fully deployed application in minutes, while maintaining full access to the Kubernetes API and ecosystem.
- Optimize app performance at scale and increase productivity of containerized workloads from cloud to edge.
- Securely modernize and optimize Kubernetes environments with unified management, governance, and monitoring.
- Explore new scenarios by tapping into open-source solutions and innovating with AI, the cloud, and machine learning. Simplify the deployment and management of AI models on AKS using the Kubernetes AI toolchain operator (KAITO).
FEATURES
Innovate with seamless Kubernetes deployment and operation
Simplified Kubernetes experience
Deliver production-ready clusters faster with AKS Automatic by automating cluster management tasks such as upgrades, node provisioning, scaling, and network configuration.
Curated code-to-cloud experience
Enable end-to-end developer productivity with debugging, automated node maintenance, and continuous integration and continuous delivery.
Integrated monitoring and logging
Get in-depth performance and health insights of Kubernetes clusters and containerized applications.
Advanced security and governance controls
Monitor and maintain container security for governance at scale with robust identity and access management.
Cloud-to-edge deployments
Get support for Linux, Windows Server, and Internet of Things (IoT) resources with AKS deployment on the infrastructure of your choice using Azure Arc.
Secure container supply chains
Use trusted Kubernetes solutions in the Azure Marketplace with click-through deployments and flexible billing models.
Advanced container networking
Implement enhanced network observability and security features to ensure secure, compliant, and high-performing containerized applications.
Multi-cluster management
Seamlessly manage multiple Kubernetes clusters at scale with Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager.
Security
Embedded security and compliance
>100
Compliance certifications, including over 50 specific to global regions and countries.
Pricing
Flexible, tier-based pricing to meet your different workload needs
- Start with the Free tier for experimentation and development and pay only for underlying resources.
- Use the Standard tier for production workloads to access a guaranteed service-level agreement (SLA), scalable Kubernetes control plane, and higher node limits per cluster.
- Upgrade to the Premium tier for workloads requiring long-term support and extended version stability.
- Choose AKS Automatic to deliver production-ready clusters out of the box, with embedded best practices and automated infrastructure operations, including upgrades, node provisioning, scaling, and network configuration.
RELATED PRODUCTS
Take advantage of the Azure ecosystem
Enhance your applications with security, monitoring, networking, storage, and other features with Azure services.
Azure Container Registry
Manage container images and artifacts with a fully managed, geo-replicated instance of Open Container Initiative (OCI) distribution.
Azure Container Storage
Manage persistent storage volumes for stateful container applications.
Microsoft Defender for Containers
Improve, monitor, and maintain the security of your containerized assets.
GitHub
Code confidently using the world’s leading developer platform, seamlessly integrated with Azure.
Azure Managed Grafana
Deploy Grafana dashboards as a fully managed Azure service.
Azure Arc
Secure, develop, and operate infrastructure, apps, and Azure services from anywhere.
Azure managed databases
Power cloud-native applications or modernize existing applications with fully managed, flexible databases.
Azure AI Foundry
Build intelligent apps at enterprise scale with Azure AI Foundry.
Build AI-powered apps with Kubernetes
Combine AI, cloud-scale data, and cloud-native app development to create unique digital experiences.
CUSTOMER STORIES
See how customers are innovating with Azure Kubernetes Service
“Azure just made sense for us. Choosing Azure Kubernetes Service not only provides us with the support and managed control plane, but also allows us to use most Kubernetes components as they are with fewer proprietary abstractions.”
Kamal Abhinay, Head of Engineering & Architecture, Victoria’s Secret & Co
3x
Performance improvement
99.99%
Availability
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Key Vault
“AKS is instrumental in scalability, deployments, and handling peak demands for AI-first services, such as automated contextualization and metadata extraction from complex engineering documents and drawings.”
Dmitry Borodin, Technical Manager of AI Solutions, Hexagon
Less than 1 hour
Time to deploy bug fixes, down from 2–3 days
+90%
Reduction in facility onboarding time
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Microsoft Foundry
- Azure SQL Database
“With Azure Kubernetes Service, we reduced critical priority incidents by 60%. The transition from VM-based architecture to AKS also resulted in a 50% cost reduction.”
Darrence Tan, Assistant Vice President, Digital International at CapitaLand Investments
60%
Reduction critical priority incidents
50%
Cost savings compared to previous environment
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Azure DevOps
GitHub Copilot
“Azure Kubernetes Service enables us to scale and reliably operate our microservices.”
Christian Schmid, Head of Mobile App Development, BMW Group
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Cosmos DB
GitHub
Azure API Management
” Pretty much all of our systems run on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to scale and reliably provide all our services and for simplified management. We have a single place for all our stuff in the ecosystem that we could very easily scaffold up in a matter of minutes with just the click of a button.”
Michael Graf, Associate Director of Engineering, Carvana
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- GitHub Copilot
- Azure Cosmos DB
“With AKS, we don't have to worry about how things are running, availability, upgrades, etc. And having the efficiency, availability, and management that Azure OpenAI delivers is essential.”
Raj Shukla, Chief Technology Officer, SymphonyAI
Products
- Azure Kubernetes Service
- Azure OpenAI
RESOURCES
Learn more to get started
AI-powered apps
Build AI-powered apps with AKS
Build and deploy applications on AKS that use AI technology to deliver personalized experiences.
Language models
Run open-source AI models on AKS
Seamlessly deploy AI models on AKS with the Kubernetes AI toolchain operator (KAITO).
Migration
Lift and shift to containers with AKS
Easily migrate existing applications to containers and run them in a fully managed Kubernetes service.
Platform engineering
Platform engineering guide
Create personalized developer experiences using building blocks from Microsoft and other vendors.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot in Azure
Create Kubernetes YAML files using Copilot in Azure.
Analyst report
2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management
Learn why Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management.1
Video series
Build with Azure Kubernetes Service
Start your cloud-native journey on AKS with video demos, tutorials, and best practices.
Overview
What is Kubernetes?
Discover Kubernetes, an open-source orchestration software for deploying, managing, and scaling containers.
Learn
AKS documentation
Quickly deploy Kubernetes clusters with these quickstarts, tutorials, and samples.
Best practices
Cluster operator and developer best practices
Learn key operator and developer concepts to successfully build and run applications in AKS.
Architectures
AKS baseline architecture
Implement the recommended baseline infrastructure architecture to deploy an AKS cluster on Azure.
Architectures
Browse more architectures
Find reference architectures, cloud architecture examples, and solution ideas for common workloads.
Updates
AKS product updates
Get the latest updates on Azure Kubernetes Service features and releases.
Scenarios
Landing zone accelerator
Start with the AKS landing zone accelerator for the strategic design path and target technical state for AKS deployments.
GitHub repo
See AKS on GitHub
Explore the repository managed by the AKS team and connect with our community on GitHub.
Meetup
Find a Kubernetes group
Engage with the broader Kubernetes community through local meet-ups.
X
The AKS community on X
Discover AKS technical content and get updates from the AKS team.
YouTube
The AKS community on YouTube
Explore technical videos, content, and updates from the AKS team.
Frequently asked questions
- Kubernetes is open-source software for deploying and managing containerized applications at scale. It orchestrates a cluster of Azure virtual machines, schedules containers, automatically manages service discovery, incorporates load balancing, tracks resource allocation, and manages the health of individual resources using automatic restart and replication. AKS is a managed service that automates provisioning, upgrading, on-demand scaling, and other Kubernetes management tasks.
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a fully managed Kubernetes service that simplifies cluster management and reduces operational overhead. It offers automatic scaling for seamless application scaling, enterprise-grade security features, and integration with popular development tools and CI/CD pipelines. AKS ensures high availability with SLA-backed uptime, continuous backups, and automatic maintenance. Additionally, it has a global reach, providing low latency and high performance for applications.
- AKS offers the quickest way to start developing and deploying cloud-native and AI-powered apps in Azure, datacenters, or at the edge, with built-in code-to-cloud pipelines and guardrails. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks, like health monitoring and maintenance. You only manage and maintain the agent nodes.
- AKS supports a diverse set of containerized workloads, including monoliths and microservices, stateful and stateless, and edge and IoT use cases. You can quickly deploy packaged solutions from Microsoft partners to AKS with Kubernetes apps in the Azure Marketplace to get up and running faster.
- AKS can run in on-premises datacenters or in edge environments, such as a retail store or branch office. Azure Kubernetes Service is enabled by Azure Arc and can be deployed on Azure Stack HCI and on both Windows Server 2019 Datacenter and Windows Server 2022 Datacenter. These flexible deployment options are enabled by Azure Arc and make it quicker to get started hosting Linux and Windows containers in your datacenter or at you edge locations.
- AKS relies on the releases and patches from Kubernetes, an open-source project that supports a sliding window of three minor versions. The Free and Standard tiers of AKS can only guarantee full support while those versions are being serviced. AKS also provides a long-term support (LTS) version of Kubernetes for a two-year period as part of our Premium tier.
Next steps
Choose the Azure account that’s right for you
Pay as you go or try Azure free for up to 30 days.
Azure solutions
Azure cloud solutions
Solve your business problems with proven combinations of Azure cloud services, as well as sample architectures and documentation.
Business Solutions Hub
Find the right Microsoft Cloud solution
Browse the Microsoft Business Solutions Hub to find the products and solutions that can help your organization reach its goals.
- [1]
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Container Management, Dennis Smith, Wataru Katsurashima, Tony Iams, Lucas Albuquerque, Michael Warrilow, Stephanie Bauman, 6 August 2025.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
