Which tool should I use first?

Use the DevOps Maturity Assessment first if you are not sure where your weaknesses are, because it covers CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, security and team practice and points to what to improve next. Use the other tools when you already have a specific question about Kubernetes upgrades, EKS spend or staffing.

All four tools run in your browser and need no account. They are planning aids, not audits, so treat the output as a starting point for a conversation rather than a final answer.

Your question	Tool	What you get
How mature is our DevOps practice?	DevOps Maturity Assessment	A maturity level and suggested next steps
What will EKS cost us each month?	EKS Cost Calculator	An estimate built from the inputs you enter
Should we hire or use managed DevOps?	Build vs Buy DevOps Calculator	A comparison over one and three years using your assumptions
What do we need to do to upgrade Kubernetes?	Kubernetes Upgrade Planner	An ordered, risk-rated checklist

How accurate are the results?

The results are only as good as the numbers and answers you enter. The calculators apply simple arithmetic to your assumptions, and they cannot see your real workloads, discounts, commitments or traffic patterns.

For cost figures in particular, compare the estimate with your actual billing data and with the pricing calculator published by your cloud provider before making a decision. Provider prices change, and agreements such as savings plans or reserved capacity alter the real figure.

How do the tools connect to our services?

Each tool is a lightweight version of a question we handle in a fuller engagement. The maturity assessment is the self-service cousin of the Cloud and DevOps Health Check, which reviews your real accounts, code and pipelines rather than your answers. The Kubernetes Upgrade Planner relates to our upgrade planning work, and the EKS Cost Calculator relates to EKS cost optimisation.

Nothing in the tools commits you to anything. If the output suggests a gap, you can act on it yourself or ask us to review it properly.

Who should fill in the tools, and when?

Run the tools when a decision is coming up, not as a routine exercise. The EKS Cost Calculator is most useful before you commit to a cluster design or when a bill surprises you, and the Kubernetes Upgrade Planner is most useful when a version you run is approaching end of support.

The Build vs Buy DevOps Calculator suits a team deciding between hiring and outsourcing, and the DevOps Maturity Assessment suits a team starting a roadmap. Repeating the assessment after a few months of changes shows whether the work moved the answers.

What should I do with the output?

Share it with the people who would act on it. A maturity result is most useful when the engineering lead, a developer and whoever handles operations each answer separately, because differences in their answers often reveal where the real problems are.

For the upgrade planner, treat the checklist as a draft and check it against the release notes and deprecation guidance for the versions involved. For the build versus buy comparison, test how sensitive the answer is by changing the assumptions you are least sure about.

Save or note your inputs so you can rerun the tool later and compare.
Check cloud cost estimates against real billing data.
Review upgrade checklists against official release notes.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to give an email address?

No. The tools are described as browser-based with no account or email required.

Are the tools a substitute for an audit?

No. They work from the answers and figures you enter. A Health Check reviews your actual environment and gives evidence-based findings.

Does the Kubernetes Upgrade Planner cover AKS and GKE?

Yes. It is described as covering EKS, AKS, GKE and self-managed Kubernetes. Always confirm the steps against the provider's own documentation.

Can the Build vs Buy calculator decide for me?

It compares the two options using the assumptions you provide, so its value is in showing which inputs matter. It does not account for factors like hiring difficulty or team morale.

What if my result looks worse than I expected?

That is normal and useful. Pick the one or two lowest-scoring areas and start there rather than trying to fix everything at once.

EKS Cost Calculator DevOps Maturity Assessment Build vs Buy DevOps Calculator Kubernetes Upgrade Planner Cloud and DevOps Health Check EKS cost optimisation Kubernetes upgrade planning and execution Managed DevOps Plans