[jrockway]

Everyone running databases in production knows how to take backups and restore from them. K8s or not, even using your cloud provider's database's built-in backups is hardly safe. One click of the "delete instance" button (or nowadays, an exciting fuck up in IaC code), and your backups are gone! Not to mention the usual cloud provider problems of "oops your credit card bounced" or "the algorithm decided we don't like your line of business". You have to have backups, they have to be "off site", and you have to try restoring them every few months. There is pretty much no platform that gives you that for free.

I am not sure what complexity Kubernetes adds in this situation. Anything Kubernetes can do to you, your cloud provider (or a poorly aimed fire extinguisher) can do to you. You have to be ready for a disaster no matter the platform.