Kubernetes Native CI/CD Case Study

Delivering Software at Cloud-Native Speed

About the Project

Modern application delivery demands speed, consistency, and resilience — especially in cloud-native environments running at scale on Kubernetes. A fast-growing digital media company partnered with Spundan to design and implement a Kubernetes Native CI/CD pipeline, transforming their software delivery into a fully automated, scalable system that matched their dynamic infrastructure.

The client ran hundreds of microservices across multiple Kubernetes clusters on AWS and GCP, serving millions of daily active users with high uptime expectations. Their legacy CI/CD setup was not designed for Kubernetes: build and deployment pipelines were hosted externally, lacked tight cluster integration, and required manual handoffs to roll out new features.

Challenges Faced

Before adopting Kubernetes Native CI/CD, the client struggled with:

Slow, Manual Deployments

Releases needed manual approvals and external scripts to push updates into clusters.

Inconsistent Rollouts

Deployments varied between teams, leading to misconfigurations and downtime during updates.

Limited Scalability

Legacy CI/CD tools were hard to scale with increasing build and release frequency.

Low Developer Confidence

Unpredictable rollouts and rollbacks created fear of deployment failures.

Spundan's Solution

Spundan's cloud-native engineering team partnered closely with the client’s platform and development teams to design and deploy a Kubernetes Native CI/CD solution built for speed and safety.

Key elements included:

Kubernetes-Native CI/CD Tools

Deployed tools like Tekton Pipelines and ArgoCD to manage build, test, and deployment workflows entirely within the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Containerized Build Agents

Leveraged Kubernetes-native build runners that scaled dynamically with workload demand — ensuring high availability during peak dev cycles.

GitOps Integration

Adopted Git as the single source of truth — with ArgoCD automatically syncing application state to match declared manifests in Git repositories.

Progressive Delivery

Incorporated native deployment strategies like canary releases, blue-green rollouts, and automated health checks to safely deploy changes.

Secure Secrets Management

Integrated Kubernetes-native secrets solutions to handle credentials and environment configs securely within the cluster.

Developer Self-Service

Built self-service deployment pipelines with clear templates, so development teams could build and ship updates autonomously.

Implementation Timeline

The transformation rolled out in three phases over five months:

1

Pipeline Design & Architecture

Assessed existing build/test processes; designed the Kubernetes-native pipeline architecture.

2

Pilot Workloads

Deployed the new pipelines on selected microservices to test integration, deployment safety, and rollback performance.

3

Cluster-Wide Rollout

Expanded Kubernetes Native CI/CD pipelines across all clusters and teams, with hands-on training and documentation for developers.

Key Outcomes

"Spundan's Kubernetes Native CI/CD pipelines transformed our release process. Our teams ship updates daily — with zero downtime and full confidence that rollbacks are instant if we ever need them.”
— Director of Platform Engineering, Digital Media Client

  80% faster release cycles with daily rollouts replacing weekly sprints.

  Near-zero deployment downtime with robust progressive delivery and health checks.

  Consistent rollouts across clusters, eliminating configuration drift.

  Higher developer productivity thanks to self-service pipelines and clear Git workflows.

Lessons Learned

Cluster-Native Pipelines Scale Better

Kubernetes-native tools like Tekton and ArgoCD scaled naturally with cluster workloads.

Progressive Rollouts Build Trust

Canary and blue-green strategies let teams deploy safely, recover faster, and reduce user impact.

Empowered Teams

Developers took full ownership of builds and releases through simple, standardized templates.

Conclusion

By adopting Kubernetes Native CI/CD, this digital media company modernized its software delivery for the cloud-native era — achieving faster time-to-market, resilient deployments, and developer freedom to innovate.



Looking to build a Kubernetes-native delivery pipeline? Talk to Spundan's cloud-native CI/CD experts today Looking to build a Kubernetes-native delivery pipeline? Talk to Spundan's cloud-native CI/CD experts today

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