“We don’t want to use the AWS flavor or the Azure flavor. We want the exact same Kubernetes flavor in each environment – so it’s much easier to shift workloads.”
— Julia Finke-Rengshausen, Platform Engineer, IAV
The Problem
IAV has been an engineering partner to the automotive industry since the 1980s. Their roots are in engines and drivetrains, but the industry’s shift toward software means cloud-native development is now at the core of their business.
IAV’s platform engineering team needed to provide developers with Kubernetes clusters. The obvious route: use managed services like Amazon EKS on AWS and AKS on Azure. But that meant each cloud came with its own flavor – different APIs, different defaults, different behavior.
What IAV Built
IAV combined meshStack with Rancher to create a custom Kubernetes platform that works identically across AWS and their on-premise OpenStack environment. Three architectural choices made it work:
- A standalone Kubernetes platform inside meshStack. Instead of forcing developers to provision an entire cloud account just to get a cluster, IAV configured a dedicated “Kubernetes Platform” in meshStack. Cluster and tenant are created in one step.
- Cluster creation separated from user management. Early on, every time someone added a user, the entire cluster deployment pipeline would re-run – up to 30 minutes wasted. IAV split this into two building blocks: one that creates the cluster once, and one that handles permissions instantly.
- GitLab CI/CD as the deployment engine. For complex provisioning logic and secure access to internal vaults, IAV wired their meshStack building blocks to trigger GitLab pipelines – giving the team full control over the deployment environment.
“Not just from an admin perspective, but also from a developer perspective – especially for newbies or developers that are not as into infrastructure, this is a very low-effort way to start.”
— Julia Finke-Rengshausen, Platform Engineer, IAV
What Changed
Today, an IAV developer logs into meshStack, names their project, picks a configuration – number of nodes, node sizes, security tooling like Kyverno – and gets a working Kubernetes cluster. Whether it runs on AWS or on IAV’s internal OpenStack, the process, the UI, and the Kubernetes flavor are identical.
What's Next
With the Kubernetes platform running, IAV’s platform team is expanding the self-service model to more infrastructure services. The cloud-agnostic foundation means adding new environments doesn’t require rebuilding the provisioning layer – the same building blocks apply wherever the cluster runs.
Discover More Advantages of meshStack
All Platforms in One Hand
With meshStack, you build and operate your internal platform.
It provides your development teams with a central portal for all use cases.
Standardize guidelines, simplify the provision of services with a central service catalog and enable self-service access to cloud resources.
Cost management is made easy with a standardized billing model.
Manage roles, users and authorizations centrally and seamlessly.
This increases the productivity, security and efficiency of your teams and optimizes your IT operations.
Fast implementation
Thanks to our SaaS model, implementation in your IT landscape is quick and easy.
Excellent support
Our experienced Customer Success team is on hand to ensure that your internal platform is a success.
100% customer satisfaction
Our customers rely permanently on meshStack for their successful platform projects.
Weekly updates
meshStack is constantly being developed further and regularly receives new functions.
Made in Germany
meshStack is also suitable for operation in highly regulated environments, such as in the financial or infrastructure sectors, thanks to its extensive compliance support. meshcloud is ISO27001 certified.
Well documented
meshStack has detailed documentation for onboarding, configuration and operation. In the Cloud Foundation Maturity Model (CFMM) we show best practices for the Cloud Journey.
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