# GCP GKE optimization | Cloud Efficiency Hub Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-gke 9 documented GCP GKE cost inefficiencies, each with how to detect it and how to fix it. [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) 9 documented GCP GKE cost inefficiencies, each with how to detect it and how to fix it. ## 9 inefficiencies [All services](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub#browse-by-service) - GCP GKE CER-0287 ### [Spot-Only GKE Capacity Without Standard Fallback](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/spot-only-gke-capacity-without-standard-fallback) Workloads are constrained to run only on Spot-based capacity with no viable path to standard nodes when Spot capacity is reclaimed or unavailable. While Spot reduces unit cost, rigid dependence can create hidden costs by requiring standby... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0193 ### [Orphaned and Overprovisioned Resources in GKE Clusters](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/orphaned-and-overprovisioned-resources-in-gke-clusters) As environments scale, GKE clusters tend to accumulate artifacts from ephemeral workloads, dev environments, or incomplete job execution. PVCs can continue to retain Persistent Disks, Services may continue to expose public IPs and... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0270 ### [Orphaned Kubernetes Resources in GKE](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/orphaned-kubernetes-resources) In GKE environments, it is common for unused Kubernetes resources to accumulate over time. Examples include Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) that retain provisioned Persistent Disks, or Services of type LoadBalancer that continue to front... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0498 ### [Balanced Cluster Autoscaler Profile on Cost-Sensitive GKE Clusters](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/balanced-cluster-autoscaler-profile-on-cost-sensitive-gke-clusters) The GKE cluster autoscaler has autoscaling profiles that decide how eagerly it removes nodes. Standard clusters default to the balanced profile, which Google describes as prioritizing keeping more resources readily available for incoming... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0499 ### [Underuse of Spot VMs for Fault-Tolerant GKE Workloads](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/underuse-of-spot-vms-for-fault-tolerant-gke-workloads) Batch jobs, CI runners, rendering, data processing and other restart-tolerant workloads on GKE frequently run on standard node pools or standard Autopilot Pods at regular prices. GKE supports Spot VMs in Standard node pools and Spot Pods... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0501 ### [Underutilized GPU Nodes in GKE Without GPU Sharing](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/underutilized-gpu-nodes-in-gke-without-gpu-sharing) Kubernetes Pods request GPUs in whole numbers, so by default an entire physical GPU is allocated to one container even when that container needs only a fraction of it. Small inference services, notebooks, development environments and light... AI - GCP GKE CER-0560 ### [GKE Clusters Incurring Extended Support Charges](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/gke-clusters-incurring-extended-support-charges) GKE supports each minor version for 14 months of standard support. Clusters enrolled in the Extended release channel can stay on a minor version for up to 24 months in total, receiving security patches for roughly 10 more months during the... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0562 ### [Idle GKE Cluster](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/idle-gke-cluster) GKE clusters created for testing, demos, proofs of concept, migrations or short-lived projects are often left running after the work ends. Even with no customer workloads, every cluster pays the flat hourly cluster management fee, and a... Compute - GCP GKE CER-0573 ### [Overprovisioned Pod Resource Requests in GKE Autopilot](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/overprovisioned-pod-resource-requests-in-gke-autopilot) GKE Autopilot bills general-purpose Pods on the CPU, memory and ephemeral storage they request, not on what they use, and not on the nodes underneath. Every vCPU and GiB requested above real need is billed for as long as the Pod runs.... Compute ## More GCP services - [GCP Compute Engine 14](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-compute-engine) - [GCP BigQuery 9](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-bigquery) - [GCP Cloud SQL 8](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-cloud-sql) - [GCP GCS 6](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-gcs) - [GCP Cloud Logging 5](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-cloud-logging) - [GCP Vertex AI 5](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-vertex-ai) - [GCP Dataflow 4](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-dataflow) - [GCP Cloud Run 3](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-cloud-run) - [GCP Cloud Memorystore 2](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-cloud-memorystore) - [GCP Cloud NAT 2](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/gcp-cloud-nat) --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.