Kubernetes is the highest abstraction available to modern application developers today, sitting above containers and VMs. It also is arguably the most complex to get started with, VMware believes, being a mostly DIY user experience.

In this research, 451 Research analyzes the complexity and financial investments needed to work with Kubernetes and discusses the new VMware Tanzu Application Platform as the promise of turning developer definition into running a Kubernetes pod – without requiring extensive knowledge of Kubernetes.