CloudHow Much Downtime Is Acceptable? (GKE Perspective)
TL;DR
* "Zero Downtime" is a vanity metric, not a business requirement.
* 99.999% uptime allows for only 5 minutes of downtime per year.
* GKE Reality: Zonal clusters (99.5% SLA) are significantly cheaper than Regional (99.95%+), and often sufficient for anyone who isn't a global bank.
* The Strategy: Use Zonal compute to save cash, but keep a Regional control plane or robust DR plan.
* Most of the time companies can afford 24 hour downtime. However it is not likely to happen.
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