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enum vs. Google GKE

enum vs Google GKE.

Sovereign Kubernetes in the EU, with no US CLOUD Act exposure and a transparent bill.

TL;DR

enum is a European public cloud offering Managed Kubernetes, compute, and S3-compatible storage from Frankfurt, under German and EU law with no CLOUD Act exposure. enum includes an HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, bills a small predictable set of line items, and gives you self-service via CLI, API, and Terraform. enum fits teams building in Europe who need sovereignty and pricing they can predict.

Included vs. Extra

What you get with enum out of the box versus what GKE charges for.

enum Kubernetes EngineGoogle GKE
HA Control Plane
Included per cluster, no per-cluster-hour charge
GKE Standard bills per-cluster-hour; Autopilot bills per-pod vCPU and memory
Corporate Jurisdiction
German GmbH, German and EU law only, no US parent
US company (Alphabet), subject to US CLOUD Act and FISA 702
Data Location
Frankfurt, Germany, Tier III+ facility
EU regions available, but the company holding the data is US-headquartered
Outbound NAT
Host-based NAT included
Cloud NAT billed per hour plus per-GB processing
Load Balancer
Flat monthly price, includes IPv4
Per-hour plus per-GB processing plus forwarding-rule charges
Pricing Currency
Euro, excluding VAT
USD, subject to exchange-rate exposure for EU buyers

enum includes an HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, provisions clusters private by default, and bills a small predictable set of line items. Google GKE bills the control plane per cluster-hour (Standard) or per-pod resource consumption (Autopilot), with Cloud NAT and Load Balancing adding per-hour and per-GB fees. Both run upstream Kubernetes. The decision is jurisdiction: enum is a German GmbH under EU law; Google is a US company under the CLOUD Act.

The hidden costs of Google GKE

This is a Google Cloud invoice.

Typical Google Cloud Invoice
GKE Standard Cluster Hours
GCE Instances
Persistent Disk Storage
Cloud NAT Hours
Cloud NAT Data Processing
Data Transfer Out
Cloud Load Balancer Hours
Cloud Load Balancer Processing
Cloud Storage
Cloud Storage Requests
Cloud DNS Queries
Premium Tier Network Egress
... more line items depending on setup

This is ours.

enum Invoice
Compute
Block Storage
Object Storage
Load Balancer
Traffic

Sovereignty

No US CLOUD Act

Google is a US company (Alphabet). US authorities can compel access to data regardless of region. enum is a German GmbH with no US entity, subject exclusively to German and EU law.

GDPR-native

No US subprocessor, no transatlantic data flows, compliant from day one.

NIS2 and DORA ready

German company, German data centers, German contracts. Structurally aligned with NIS2 and DORA for regulated workloads.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google GKE GDPR-compliant?
enum is a German GmbH operating under German and EU law only, with no US parent and no US subprocessors. There are no transatlantic data flows, and the company holding your data is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. All infrastructure runs in Frankfurt.
Is Google GKE subject to the US CLOUD Act?
enum has no US entity in its corporate structure, so it is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or FISA Section 702. The jurisdiction is the company, not the region. A US company's EU region is still under US lawful-access mechanisms.
What does GKE really cost compared to enum?
enum includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge. You pay for compute per hour, block storage per GB, object storage per GB, load balancing at a flat monthly fee, and outgoing traffic at a flat per-GB rate. No per-request fees, no NAT data-processing surcharges, no LCU charges. All prices in euros, excluding VAT.
What is the best European alternative to Google GKE?
enum offers upstream Kubernetes with an HA control plane included, operated in Frankfurt by a German GmbH under EU law only. You get self-service via CLI, API, and Terraform, private-by-default clusters, and a transparent bill in euros. No US dependencies, no CLOUD Act exposure. enum is a self-service public cloud, not a managed service or consulting engagement.
Can I migrate from Google GKE to enum?
Yes. enum runs upstream Kubernetes, so your manifests, Helm charts, and GitOps pipelines work without changes. Object storage is S3-compatible, so existing tools work as-is. Migration support is available if you need help with the cutover.
How does enum Kubernetes Engine differ from GKE Autopilot?
enum gives you explicit control over node shapes and scaling, includes the HA control plane per cluster at no extra charge, and bills compute per hour with optional commitment discounts. You keep full control over workloads, RBAC, Helm, and GitOps. The control plane, upgrades, and HA are operated for you.

Further reading

enum Kubernetes Engine
S3-compatible object storage
Sovereign Kubernetes and NIS2/DORA
Pricing calculator
European Cloud Platform

Start building on enum.

Self-service cloud infrastructure with a developer experience that gets out of your way. Built and operated in Europe.

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✓CNCF & Linux Foundation member
✓Digital sovereignty from Germany
✓No US dependencies, no CLOUD Act
enum vs Google GKE: Sovereign Kubernetes in the EU, no CLOUD Act