Oxide publishes Kubernetes integrations shaped by customer feedback
The infrastructure company released three provisioning tools after listening to customers' deployment workflows.
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What to know
- Oxide released three Kubernetes provisioning integrations (Rancher, Omni, Cluster API) built on direct customer feedback rather than abstract design.
- The company's first Solutions Software Engineer followed user problems across the entire Kubernetes lifecycle—provisioning, operations, networking, and storage—to identify what integrations were actually needed.
- One integration shipped with a customer already running it in production; another required a partnership with Sidero Labs completed in seven weeks for KubeCon 2025.
- Community discussion focuses on remaining gaps: pod-level VM isolation features and integrated load balancing still lag public cloud offerings like AWS EKS Fargate.
How it unfolded
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Community members noted that Kubernetes support on Oxide still lags public cloud offerings in some areas, particularly around pod-level VM isolation (AWS EKS Fargate equivalent) and load balancing integration.
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Oxide published a detailed blog post describing how customer feedback across provisioning, cluster operations, networking, and storage shaped the development of three Kubernetes integrations.
“Rather than design integrations in the abstract, we followed the problems customers encountered as they moved from provisioning clusters to operating workloads.”
stevehipwell (Oxide) · Hacker News ↗ - 80 weeks quiet
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With KubeCon North America 2025 a few months away, Oxide partnered with Sidero Labs to build and showcase an Oxide infrastructure provider for Omni in seven weeks before an Oxide+Sidero event.
- 4 weeks quiet
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Oxide merged a customer-submitted Rancher node driver pull request, tested it, added CI/CD and documentation improvements, and published the initial release. A customer was already using it successfully in production.
- 4 weeks quiet
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Oxide hired its first Solutions Software Engineer focused on building software to solve customer problems, with the initial assignment to make it easier to deploy and operate Kubernetes on Oxide.
- 4 weeks quiet
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Customers and prospects were eager to run Kubernetes on Oxide, but the company had no supported integrations to help them do it, prompting Oxide to develop solutions.
What people are saying verbatim
“In late 2024, customers and prospects were eager to run Kubernetes on Oxide, but we had no supported integrations to help them do it.”
stevehipwell, Oxide Solutions Software Engineer · Oxide blog ↗
“Rather than design integrations in the abstract, we followed the problems customers encountered as they moved from provisioning clusters to operating workloads.”
stevehipwell, Oxide Solutions Software Engineer · Oxide blog ↗
“Oxide officially had its first Kubernetes integration—and a customer was already using it successfully in production!”
stevehipwell, Oxide Solutions Software Engineer · Oxide blog ↗
“Kubernetes is where Oxide, from my armchair, doesn't yet quite match the public cloud.”
whazor, Hacker News commenter · Hacker News ↗ · Aug 12
“I'm interested to see how the `oxide-cloud-controller-manager` is being built for "modern" Kubernetes and if it leads to any signify difference compared to CCMs that originated in-tree.”
stevehipwell, Hacker News commenter · Hacker News ↗ · Aug 12
“It would be nice if Kubernetes were a native feature out-of-the-box. Also integrated within the existing user/access control.”
whazor, Hacker News commenter · Hacker News ↗ · Aug 12
The conversation unedited, verbatim
91 comments claimed on the threads · 11 collected here from 2 sites · 11 voices below over time ↑
Where people stand verbatim
The Hacker News discussion centers on technical feasibility and remaining gaps in Oxide's Kubernetes support relative to public cloud platforms. While the customer-driven approach is praised, commenters focus on what still needs building—particularly around cloud controller manager architecture, pod isolation, load balancing, and ingress solutions.
The dispute Whether Oxide's Kubernetes support represents meaningful parity with public cloud platforms or remains fundamentally limited by architectural choices (node-level VMs vs. pod-level isolation).
Oxide's Kubernetes support lags public cloud in key areas and needs deeper native integration.
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“Kubernetes is where Oxide, from my armchair, doesn't yet quite match the public cloud. On AWS EKS Fargate, each pod runs in its own dedicated VM.”
whazor · Hacker News ↗ -
“It would be nice if Kubernetes were a native feature out-of-the-box. Also integrated within the existing user/access control.”
whazor · Hacker News ↗
The cloud controller manager and provisioning approach shows promise and could lead to interesting innovations.
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“I'm interested to see how the `oxide-cloud-controller-manager` is being built for "modern" Kubernetes and if it leads to any signify difference compared to CCMs that originated in-tree. Given the way Oxide engineer their solutions this…”
stevehipwell · Hacker News ↗
- Will Oxide release a Karpenter provider for auto-scaling, and when?
- How will Oxide's cloud controller manager differ from legacy in-tree implementations?
- When will Oxide offer pod-level VM isolation comparable to AWS EKS Fargate?
- Yesterday
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Great post.ClusterAPI never got the love that it should. I spent a good amount of time on it at VMware, as Tanzu heavily leverages it for cluster deployment (mostly CAP-A and CAP-V). It's basically kubeadm + the spirit of Terraform, Kubernetes controller edition. There's lots of great enterprise-ready options for centralized k8s cluster fleet…
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I’ve tried so hard to figure out what the hell oxide even is, but the website is utterly impenetrable. I guess it’s an “integrated platform” and does “AI” and it’s “purpose built for frontier workloads”, but… I have absolutely no idea what it is, still.I guess it’s a bunch of computers. It says “AMD” in a bunch of places so, I guess they’re x86…
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Bug report I guess, but the pages top navigation seems completely inoperable to me on my iPad. Clicking with my finger does not work. Clicking with my Apple Pencil does not work. Any sort of hover state that might be there does not work (with the pencil)
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Disclaimer: I'm totally biased here.I talked with a colleague from Oxide in 2024 about your Kubernetes story and he said back then "not yet but soon-ish". Seems like soon-ish is now :)We said we'd talk again when that happens but he's since left Oxide. If you (or well...your customers) are interested in a Kubernetes native data platform 100% open…
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I am wondering when would you use kubernetes on oxide vs running kubernetes with kubevirt on baremetal?At first look, it feels like oxide is equivalent to proxmox or some virtualization tool, may be it uses qemu stuff underneath.Just curious.The reason I am asking this is that, we have lot onprem scenarios in our business. We are tightly coupled…
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There are few paths we can take here. The CCM's primary responsibility is to implement the cloudprovider.Interface[0] which has node, route, and service controllers. However, the CCM can run arbitrary named controllers as well, giving us a fun extension point for the future. The in-tree CCMs are being phased out in favor of out-of-tree CCMs. The…
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Kubernetes is where Oxide, from my armchair, doesn't yet quite match the public cloud.On AWS EKS Fargate, each pod runs in its own dedicated VM. With Oxide each k8s node is a VM, so you still need something like Talos.On networking it looks like it is getting closer. Where you can have external subnet give pod routed IPs without overlay. But the…
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Yes this would be great addition! Also it would be awesome to see proper load balancer, ingress controller with `gateway api` and a `api gateway` (two separate things).I’m not an oxide customer, just a fan. I have lots of ideas around how something like this should look, being disappointed with the complexity and also shortcomings of products on…
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I have seldom wanted anything as much as I want an Oxide rack at home. Maybe in 40 years we'll start to see the first ones show up in surplus auctions...
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I'm interested to see how the `oxide-cloud-controller-manager` is being built for "modern" Kubernetes and if it leads to any signify difference compared to CCMs that originated in-tree. Given the way Oxide engineer their solutions this could be really interesting.FYI I've got `karpenter-provider-oxide` on my bingo card...
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🎉 Oh boy, another thrilling tale of how a tech company finally realized that listening to customers might be a good idea! 🙄 Two years ago, they discovered # Kubernetes and # Oxide were meant to be together, like peanut butter and jelly—if only someone had thought to put them in the same sandwich sooner! 🍞🤦♂️ https://…