How much does a team need to learn to work with BKE?

A team that already works with Kubernetes has nothing new to learn at the workload layer, because BKE adds no resource types of its own. What is specific to BKE is installation and upgrade, which the published documentation covers in full.

Can BKE be used in a client's regulated environment?

BKE is installed on the client's own hardware, in the client's own data centre, so the cluster and its data stay wherever that hardware is. Which frameworks apply depends on the client's sector and should be confirmed with its regulator; the GCC market pages summarise them as context.

Does Mamluk also offer consulting services?

Yes. Mamluk offers consulting, support and enterprise architecture services of its own. In a partnership, the division of work between the firm and Mamluk is agreed for each engagement.

How can our team evaluate BKE?

Start a 14-day trial from the Mamluk console . It needs no sales call and no payment details, and it installs the complete distribution.

What does Mamluk provide to a partner?

Licences for BKE and the Enterprise Helm Charts, support from the engineers who develop them, and published documentation. The commercial terms of each partnership are agreed directly with the partner.

Partners · Consulting firms

More of the programme budget for the work your client engaged you to do.

A consulting firm that leads a cloud or modernisation programme is measured on its outcome, but the programme's budget is shared with the platform it runs on. A platform licensed per core, which needs specialists of its own, takes budget and time from the advisory, architecture and delivery work. BKE is licensed at a flat fee per cluster, and it is upstream Kubernetes, which your teams already know.

Discuss a partnership The cost of ownership

The problem

Two costs the programme carries before the advice.

The first is the subscription. An enterprise Kubernetes platform licensed per core is commonly the largest recurring cost in a container programme, and the business case carries it in every year of the programme and in every year after it.

The second is the learning curve. A proprietary platform brings its own resource types, its own operators and its own operating model. Engineers who know Kubernetes must learn the platform as well, and the client pays for that time either in the programme schedule or in specialist rates.

The client's budget is one figure. What the platform takes in licences and in specialist time is not available for the work the firm was engaged to deliver.

The arithmetic

What the platform costs a customer each year.

A worked example: a regulated bank running production, staging and performance testing in 3 clusters, on 320 worker cores in total.

Platform	Per year	Over 3 years
OpenShift, 320 worker cores at an assumed USD 1,850 per core	USD 592,000	USD 1,776,000
BKE for 3 clusters, the Enterprise Helm Charts, and support with a four-hour response time	USD 156,000	USD 468,000
Difference	USD 436,000	USD 1,308,000

The OpenShift rate is an assumption: a heavily discounted figure, including Red Hat’s support subscription, used because OpenShift is negotiated per customer and no list price applies to any particular one. Substitute the per-core rate from a real quote and multiply it by 320; the BKE figures do not depend on it. Hardware and staff are excluded from both sides. The full example, with each arrangement and the cost of growth, is on the BKE site.

On the assumed rate, OpenShift costs 3.8 times as much. The difference does not shrink as the estate grows: a further worker core adds to a per-core subscription every year, and adds nothing to a BKE licence, which is USD 12,000 per cluster whatever its size.

For a consulting firm, that difference is the room in the client's business case. A programme that does not carry a per-core subscription is easier to approve, can fund a larger scope of advisory and delivery work, and remains affordable to the client after the firm has handed it over.

What changes

What changes when the platform is BKE.

Kubernetes your teams already know

BKE is upstream Kubernetes with no fork and no proprietary resource types. What your engineers know about Kubernetes applies to BKE without translation, and what they learn on BKE applies to any other distribution.

Installation measured in commands

A cluster is installed with a handful of commands: one on each control-plane node, one on each worker, and one to lay down the components. The documentation is published in full.

A business case that survives growth

The licence is a flat fee per cluster. Capacity added during or after the programme does not change it, so the cost the client approved is the cost the client keeps paying.

An exit the client can see

Because BKE is upstream, there is nothing to re-platform if the client later moves to another distribution. If a licence lapses, the cluster continues to serve traffic, and only installation and upgrades pause.

A platform for regulated clients

BKE runs on the client's own hardware, so the data stays where that hardware is. The frameworks that govern data location in each GCC state are summarised on our GCC market pages.

Support in the client's region

The distribution is supported from within the GCC by the engineers who develop it, in the client's working day and under the client's regulator.

What partners work with

One distribution, one chart suite, and the engineers who build both.

Bahriya Kubernetes Engine

Upstream Kubernetes and upstream components, with no fork and no proprietary resource types. Licensed at a flat USD 12,000 per cluster per year, whatever the number of nodes, cores or memory, with every component included.

Mamluk Enterprise Helm Charts

Production-ready MySQL, Valkey, message brokers and more, with replication, backups and upgrade paths already decided. They are the charts that run the managed services on bahriya.cloud, licensed per organisation for on-premise use.

Support from the developers

BKE and the charts are supported by the engineers who develop them, from within the GCC. Support with a four-hour response time and Kubernetes support contracts are available on top of the standard support included with a licence.

An evaluation without a sales call

A 14-day trial licence is issued from the Mamluk console and installs the complete distribution. The documentation and the node requirements are published in full.

The commercial terms of each partnership are agreed directly with the partner.

Questions

Common questions from consulting firms.

How much does a team need to learn to work with BKE?: A team that already works with Kubernetes has nothing new to learn at the workload layer, because BKE adds no resource types of its own. What is specific to BKE is installation and upgrade, which the published documentation covers in full.
Can BKE be used in a client's regulated environment?: BKE is installed on the client's own hardware, in the client's own data centre, so the cluster and its data stay wherever that hardware is. Which frameworks apply depends on the client's sector and should be confirmed with its regulator; the GCC market pages summarise them as context.
Does Mamluk also offer consulting services?: Yes. Mamluk offers consulting, support and enterprise architecture services of its own. In a partnership, the division of work between the firm and Mamluk is agreed for each engagement.
How can our team evaluate BKE?: Start a 14-day trial from the Mamluk console. It needs no sales call and no payment details, and it installs the complete distribution.
What does Mamluk provide to a partner?: Licences for BKE and the Enterprise Helm Charts, support from the engineers who develop them, and published documentation. The commercial terms of each partnership are agreed directly with the partner.