It’s with immense pride and excitement we can announce that Civo is coming out of beta!

When we planned out our beta program, which we called #KUBE100, our first priority was getting real-world feedback from a wide range of developers, all at various stages in their Kubernetes journey. We wanted to create a Kubernetes platform that plugged the gaps we saw in the industry – speed of deployment, ease of use, and a simple billing model.

Over the last 20 months over 4,000+ beta testers joined us from 113 different countries! We’ve had incredible feedback sessions with seasoned Kubernetes experts and beginners alike, data scientists and machine learning engineers, cyber security specialists and systems architects.

Civo Slack

All this feedback and advice from our community has been used to shape Civo for launch, and we are now in a position to comfortably say that Civo Kubernetes is ready for the world.

What we have learned during the beta?

We’ve learned so much it’s hard to know where to start. The first thing that comes to mind is that the Kubernetes community (and the wider Cloud Native scene) is incredible.

We always knew building a community around Civo would be a big part of our identity, but even still, we have been humbled by the support and selflessness our beta testers, partners and new friends have shown us.

We’ve identified use-cases for Kubernetes and K3s where our community have used Civo in ways we didn’t anticipate. Above all we learned that there’s not only room, but a real demand for a lightweight, superfast and simple Kubernetes solution. Especially one which allows you to spin up a Kubernetes environment in half the time it takes to brew a cup of tea – and we’re getting faster every day.

90 sec cluster build

Empowering our users to shape the vision of Civo is really important to us, so much so that we based our 2021 roadmap on it. Take a look to see what we have in store for the next few months.

When is our beta coming to an end?

As of 15th March 2021, we will no longer be accepting applications to the #KUBE100. Instead, we’ll be taking applications for our early access launch in May.

Anyone who signs up to join Civo after 15th March will be first in the queue when we start inviting new users to join from the 4th May 2021.

What is changing for our beta testers?

Not a lot is imminently changing for our existing testers. All beta testers will continue to get their $70 free credit every month up until 4th May 2021. From that date services will be billable, but… we’re also giving all our testers $250 worth of free credit to use at Civo after launch so you can continue to use your clusters.

All you need to do to get your $250 credit is to add a credit/debit card to your Civo account. We'll then automatically add the credit to your account on the 4th May launch day

What happens on 4th May launch?

The 4th May launch is when our early access period begins. It’s a declaration that Civo is production-ready and open for business.

We’ll be offering a multi-region, feature-packed, managed Kubernetes service from day one. As mentioned in our roadmap blog there will be a number of features ready for launch including multi-version support, high availability, managed persistent storage, master back up, and a few more surprises we’re holding back for now.

Needless to say, we’ll be ready, and Civo will match and hopefully exceed the expectations already bubbling away in our community.

How to get involved?

We need our amazing community now more than ever! There are a few ways you can get involved in supporting the launch including…

But the single biggest thing you can do is talk about Civo. If you enjoyed your time in the beta, let us know @CivoCloud on Twitter, tell your friends, or write a blog post about your experiences so far.

If you’re a Kubernetes app developer or maintainer and your app isn’t already on our marketplace, reach out to us or simply raise a pull request on Github to get the ball rolling. If your app is already on our marketplace, now is the perfect time to write an up-to-date tutorial for it – you can expect a lot more eyes on your app when we launch!

And finally... thank you

We’re nearly at the end of the first part of our journey, and as one chapter ends another begins. But we couldn’t have got this far without the support, feedback and advice from a lot of different people.

I want to extend my gratitude firstly to everyone who has been a part of the #KUBE100 beta, and the entire Civo community. To all 4,000+ of you, thank you!

A special thanks also goes out to our wonderful Ambassadors who have played a pivotal role in helping the community in their Kubernetes journey, and assisting us in the early testing rounds for our new regions and platform.

I also want to send a big shout out to everyone at Rancher Labs, and especially Darren Shepherd – creator of K3s who has supported us throughout. He was also kind enough to join us for an amazing K3s deep-dive talk.

I know everyone at Civo is so excited about our next chapter and we can’t wait to see what you think.