It Doesn't Always Have to Be Caviar: Enterprise Alternatives and the Challenge of Default Stacks
When onboarding a new enterprise client to the world of DevOps and Kubernetes, it’s tempting to deploy the usual, dominant tools. However, we introduced a twist: we strategically sought, tested, and implemented robust open-source alternatives.
This presentation chronicles our journey to build a highly available, production-ready environment without relying on the most common software defaults. We will detail the how—creating a foundation using tools like Podman instead of Docker, Gitea instead of GitLab, and implementing PostgreSQL with Timescale for critical, high-volume tasks.
Crucially, we explore the why. Why challenge the status quo? What are the true technical benefits, security gains, and cost advantages of these non-standard yet powerful combinations? Learn how we achieved reliability and enterprise-level functionality while avoiding "caviar" solutions, providing valuable lessons for any team looking to customize their technology stack.