• AWS Architecture Blog How Salesforce migrated from Cluster Autoscaler to Karpenter across their fleet of 1,000 EKS clusters As organizations scale their Kubernetes deployments, Kubernetes cluster scaling has traditionally been complex and slow, requiring careful management of node groups and auto scaling configurations. • Karpenter, an open source node provisioning project for Kubernetes, can help transform this approach by directly provisioning right-sized nodes based on real-time workload demands. • A recent Datadog report reveals that the percentage of nodes provisioned by Karpenter rose by 22% in the last 2 years as organizations migrate from traditional auto scaling approaches. • This growth underscores Amazon Web Services (AWS) leadership in cloud-based innovation and the container ecosystem’s recognition of Karpenter’s strong performance and cost efficiency benefits. • The following post examines how Salesforce, operating one of the world’s largest Kubernetes deployments, successfully migrated from Cluster Autoscaler to Karpenter across their fleet of 1,000 plus Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) clusters. • Salesforce operates one of the world’s most complex Kubernetes platforms, managing over 1,000 EKS clusters that serve thousands of internal tenants across the company.

Article Summaries:

  • Salesforce, which manages more than 1,000 Amazon EKS clusters, replaced its legacy Cluster Autoscaler-tied to AWS Auto Scaling groups-with AWS‑built Karpenter. The old system caused long scaling delays, poor bin‑packing, and a proliferation of node groups that hampered rapid response to workload spikes. Karpenter’s on‑demand, right‑sized node provisioning cut these bottlenecks, improving resource utilization, reducing costs, and enabling developers to self‑serve infrastructure. The migration required a phased rollout, careful integration with existing tooling, and handling of scaling‑performance challenges. Overall, Salesforce achieved lower operational complexity, faster scaling, and better cost efficiency across its Kubernetes fleet.

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