Kubernetes Dashboard vs Infrastructure Explorer
Modern infrastructure teams are navigating growing complexity: multi-cluster Kubernetes deployments, dynamic scaling, noisy neighbors, regional compliance, and escalating customer SLAs. While the Kubernetes Dashboard is a trusted default, it was never designed to scale with you.
Infrastructure Explorer bridges the gap between visibility and action. It brings together performance data, relationships, and contextual insights across clusters, so teams spend less time jumping between tools and more time solving problems.
Below, we break down the most common Kubernetes monitoring tasks, comparing what Kubernetes Dashboard offers with how Infrastructure Explorer helps you work smarter and resolve issues faster.
1. Compare how cluster entities are displayed
Visibility into all entities and their relationships accelerates orientation and prevents misconfiguration.
Kubernetes Dashboard: Allows viewing one cluster at a time; limited cross-entity awareness.
Infrastructure Explorer: Available through the clusters table (multi-cluster view) and in the Relationships tab of a specific cluster drill-down.
2. View cluster CPU & memory usage
Kubernetes Dashboard: Displays real-time usage per cluster but lacks context.
Infrastructure Explorer: Scalable view of CPU and memory across clusters with drill-down.
3. View nodes by geographical region
Kubernetes Dashboard: Shows node locations if configured.
Infrastructure Explorer: Currently does not surface geographic info.
4. View node versions (Kubelet)
Kubernetes Dashboard: Shows node versions directly.
Infrastructure Explorer: Drill into node metadata to view versions.
5. View pods within a cluster by status
Kubernetes Dashboard: Shows pod status.
Infrastructure Explorer: Tracks pod states across clusters with pending/failed highlights.
6. View resource-intensive pods (CPU/memory)
Kubernetes Dashboard: Shows metrics but lacks sorting and depth.
Infrastructure Explorer: Sort by CPU/memory to find top consumers.
7. View resource-intensive nodes (CPU/memory/disk)
Kubernetes Dashboard: Offers per-node view.
Infrastructure Explorer: Drill-down and sort supported (no disk aggregation yet).
Nodes data
8. View all nodes with CPU, memory, network & disk metrics
Kubernetes Dashboard: Requires manual filtering.
Infrastructure Explorer:
- Table view: filter by node or cluster
- In cluster drill-down: navigate to Relationships → Nodes
9. View Kubernetes events (filter by node/namespace/pod)
Kubernetes Dashboard: Basic filtering.
Infrastructure Explorer: Advanced filtering and embedded events in drill-downs.
10. View node metrics over time
Kubernetes Dashboard: Limited historical graphs.
Infrastructure Explorer:
- Aggregate CPU & memory in cluster drill-down
- Live view in Relationships → Nodes
- Full history in node drill-down
Pods data
11. View pod metrics: containers, CPU, memory, network
Kubernetes Dashboard: Per-pod view with filters.
Infrastructure Explorer:
- Pods table view with filters
- Relationships tab in cluster drill-down
12. View pod metrics over time
Kubernetes Dashboard: Basic time-based filtering.
Infrastructure Explorer:
13. View CPU & memory per pod on a node (noisy neighbor)
Kubernetes Dashboard: Historical data with pod filtering.
Infrastructure Explorer:
- Cluster drill-down aggregate view
- Live per-pod metrics in Relationships → Pods
- Node drill-down with noisy neighbor insights
- Pod drill-down with time-series
Visibility that works at scale
Where Kubernetes Dashboard offers helpful real-time snapshots, Infrastructure Explorer delivers context-aware, cross-cluster intelligence. It’s not just about seeing the problem, it's about seeing it in relation to everything else that matters.
Key benefits of Infrastructure Explorer
- Faster resolution of infrastructure incidents
- Reduced reliance on command-line troubleshooting
- Improved visibility across multi-cluster and multi-tenant environments
- Less manual correlation between logs, metrics, and entities
- A shared source of truth across Ops, SRE, and Dev teams
If you're scaling, collaborating, or just tired of cobbling together metrics from scattered tools, Infrastructure Explorer is built for your future state.