Kubernetes

Tool	Description	AWS	Azure	GCP	Example Use Case
kubectl	Kubernetes CLI for cluster management	✅	✅	✅	Deploy apps, manage resources, debug pods
Helm	Kubernetes package manager (charts)	✅	✅	✅	Install Prometheus, NGINX Ingress, ArgoCD
Kustomize	Template-free YAML customization	✅	✅	✅	Overlay configs for dev/prod environments
K9s	Terminal UI for managing clusters	✅	✅	✅	Real-time pod monitoring and troubleshooting
Lens	Kubernetes IDE (GUI)	✅	✅	✅	Visualize workloads, manage clusters
ArgoCD	GitOps continuous delivery controller	✅	✅	✅	Automated app deployment from Git
FluxCD	GitOps continuous delivery tool	✅	✅	✅	Declarative cluster state management
Prometheus	Monitoring and alerting toolkit	✅	✅	✅	Collect cluster and app metrics
Grafana	Visualization and dashboarding	✅	✅	✅	Create dashboards for Prometheus metrics
Velero	Backup and restore for Kubernetes	✅	✅	✅	Scheduled cluster backups to S3, Blob, GCS
Istio	Service mesh for traffic management	✅	✅	✅	Secure, monitor, and control microservices
Linkerd	Lightweight service mesh	✅	✅	✅	Zero-trust networking for services
cert-manager	Automated certificate management	✅	✅	✅	Issue TLS certs from Let’s Encrypt
kube-bench	CIS Kubernetes security checks	✅	✅	✅	Audit cluster security posture
kube-hunter	Kubernetes penetration testing	✅	✅	✅	Find cluster vulnerabilities
kubeseal	Encrypted secrets management (SealedSecrets)	✅	✅	✅	Store secrets safely in Git
krew	Plugin manager for kubectl	✅	✅	✅	Install kubectl plugins (e.g., ctx, ns)
Skaffold	CI/CD for local Kubernetes development	✅	✅	✅	Rapid local dev and deployment
Telepresence	Local development with remote clusters	✅	✅	✅	Debug services in real clusters from local machine
Trivy	Container and K8s security scanner	✅	✅	✅	Scan images and manifests for vulnerabilities

Legend:

• ✅ = Supported/commonly used

Real-Life Example: Helm on Azure AKS

# Add Bitnami repo and install Prometheus on AKS
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm install prometheus bitnami/kube-prometheus --namespace monitoring --create-namespace

Real-Life Example: Velero Backup to AWS S3

velero install \
  --provider aws \
  --bucket my-k8s-backups \
  --secret-file ./aws-credentials \
  --backup-location-config region=us-west-2

Real-Life Example: ArgoCD GitOps on GKE

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
# Connect ArgoCD to a Git repo for automated app deployment

For more, see the Kubernetes official tools list and each tool’s documentation.