Kubernetes Without Illusions: A Field Guide for the Enterprise is a practical and unvarnished account of what really happens when mainstream enterprises begin their Kubernetes journey. It is not a promise of cloud native perfection. Instead, it is based on hundreds of real engagements with banks, governments, manufacturers, healthcare providers, and other organisations that place stability and governance alongside agility. The story begins with the moment Kubernetes “lands on the desk” which is rarely the result of a careful, strategic rollout plan. More often it arrives through a vendor announcement, a leadership directive, or a compliance mandate. The early days are full of optimism and whiteboard diagrams that suggest the work is straightforward. This optimism often hides the fact that Kubernetes adoption is never a single neat project. It is a portfolio of interlinked efforts such as application refactoring, container supply chain design, CI/CD transformation, security hardening, observability, and platform engineering. Each has its own scope, complexity, and dependencies. You will follow the transition from early lab experiments into the reality of production readiness. The lab phase builds confidence and familiarity, but also exposes integration challenges with identity systems, networking, storage, and security controls. The book shows why it is essential to include workloads and conditions that reflect the real environment, so that surprises are discovered early when they are easier to address. From there, the narrative steps into the CNCF landscape. For enterprises used to curated vendor suites, the vast and fragmented ecosystem can feel overwhelming. Tool selection becomes a test of self-awareness, with successful organisations choosing technologies that match their operational capacity rather than chasing the most complex or feature rich options. Decision time becomes a critical moment, requiring a balance between security, developer, and operations priorities, and the governance to make deliberate, well-informed choices. The grind of implementation reveals hidden dependencies and integration friction. Governance gaps, unclear ownership, and inconsistent operational practices can undermine progress if not addressed. First production deployments then put every decision to the test. Some organisations start with safe, low-risk workloads to learn under manageable pressure, while others go directly to high-profile applications to prove the platform under load. In both cases, the early results shape long-term trust and adoption. Scaling the platform introduces new challenges in maintaining consistency, enforcing policy, and managing human factors as more teams and workloads come on board. The long game shifts focus from building to sustaining, keeping the platform secure, efficient, and aligned with changing business needs. This requires proactive review of tooling viability, cost optimisation, thorough documentation, and a culture of continuous improvement. In Beyond the Summit , the book makes clear that there is no final endpoint. A stable, trusted Kubernetes platform is an achievement, but it is also a foundation for the next stage, whether that means supporting more complex workloads, integrating with new technologies, or eventually transitioning to a different platform when required. This is a guide for the majority of enterprises that do not have vast teams of platform engineers and that need Kubernetes to fit their environment rather than the other way around. It is pragmatic, realistic, and focused on helping you plan with eyes open, avoid common traps, and build a platform that delivers value from day one and continues to do so for the long term.