Only 38% of enterprises running Kubernetes in production reach enterprise-grade maturity, F5 study finds
FFIV•F5-commissioned research found that 38% of enterprises running Kubernetes in production reached enterprise-grade maturity, while 61% demanded comparable or higher IT standards. The survey also found observability was the most common maturity gap, and 45% of these enterprises deployed or served AI models.
1. Kubernetes maturity gaps
F5-commissioned research covering 445 hands-on practitioners at organizations with more than 500 employees found that 38% of enterprises running Kubernetes in production reached enterprise-grade maturity, despite 61% demanding comparable or higher IT standards. The survey was conducted in August 2026.
2. Investment and oversight
Observability was the most common maturity gap, but 28% planned investment in it within 12 months, compared with 42% targeting security and policy enforcement. Enterprise-grade maturity reached 66% at organizations where dedicated platform teams operated Kubernetes under separate central security oversight; 19% used that structure.
3. AI deployment
AI model deployment or serving had reached 45% of production Kubernetes enterprises. Among those, 43% inspected agent tools and Model Context Protocol traffic.
