Scaling Python Web Applications With Kubernetes and Karpenter

<p>What goes into scaling a web application today? What are resources for learning and practicing DevOps skills? This week on the show, Calvin Hendryx-Parker is back to discuss the tools and infrastructure for autoscaling web applications with Kubernetes and Karpenter.</p>
<p>Calvin is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up, a Python and AI consultancy. He shares how they recently helped a client scale a web application that employs video, audio, and chat sessions. We dig deep into the tooling behind modern Kubernetes systems management and performance monitoring.</p>
<p>Calvin shares a project bootstrap tool for streamlining the development and deployment of a web application. The tool includes a complete blueprint for the infrastructure needed to get started.</p>
<p>We also dig into a collection of coding tools Calvin has been experimenting with. We discuss his recent IndyPy presentation, “Battle of the Bots,” which put several AI code assistants through their paces.</p>
<p>This episode is sponsored by AMD.</p>
<div class="alert alert-primary" role="alert">
<p><strong>Course Spotlight:</strong> <a href="realpython.com/courses/first-steps-langchain/&… Steps With LangChain</a></p>
<p>Large language models (LLMs) have taken the world by storm. In this step-by-step video course, you’ll learn to use the LangChain library to build LLM-assisted applications.</p>
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<p>Topics:</p>
<ul>
<li>00:00:00 – Introduction</li>
<li>00:02:23 – Scaling a Django project using Kubernetes</li>
<li>00:05:35 – Elastic Kubernets Service (EKS)</li>
<li>00:09:10 – Kubernetes terminology and improvements in tooling</li>
<li>00:11:29 – The Control Plane and the API</li>
<li>00:14:06 – Video Course Spotlight</li>
<li>00:15:11 – scaf: providing DevOps engineers a blueprint for new projects</li>
<li>00:17:21 – What have been the benefits of scaf for internal teams?</li>
<li>00:20:18 – How do you identify and reproduce scaling issues?</li>
<li>00:22:44 – Dealing with IP address scaling</li>
<li>00:26:03 – Why use other observability tools beyond AWS internal ones?</li>
<li>00:29:22 – Other lessons learned and moving toward refactoring code</li>
<li>00:33:53 – Scaling a voice-based LLM application</li>
<li>00:35:35 – Sponsor: AMD</li>
<li>00:36:11 – Looking at limitations and bottlenecks</li>
<li>00:38:08 – Configuring a Kubernetes operator to act on itself</li>
<li>00:39:47 – What project components are within a pod of containers?</li>
<li>00:42:31 – Budgeting for scale using Karpenter</li>
<li>00:43:58 – Tools for running containers locally</li>
<li>00:46:01 – Are containers still a primary development tool for you?</li>
<li>00:50:58 – Resources for learning DevOps and Kubernetes</li>
<li>00:52:54 – Conferences and talks</li>
<li>00:53:56 – Battle of the Bots: comparing coding agents</li>
<li>00:55:15 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?</li>
<li>00:56:20 – What do you want to learn next?</li>
<li>01:02:42 – What’s the best way for people to follow your work online?</li>
<li>01:03:33 – Thanks and goodbye</li>
</ul>
<p>Show Links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="sixfeetup.com/">Six Feet Up - Python and AI for Good, Custom Software Development</a></li>
<li><a href="kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/">Kuberne… - Tutorials</a></li>
<li><a href="aws.amazon.com/eks/">Managed Kubernetes Service - Amazon EKS - AWS</a></li>
<li><a href="karpenter.sh/">Karpenter</a><…;
<li><a href="kustomize.io/">Kustomize - Kubernetes native configuration management</a></li>
<li><a href="kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/component… Components - Control Plane Components</a></li>
<li><a href="realpython.com/github-actions-python/">… Integration and Deployment for Python With GitHub Actions</a></li>
<li><a href="argoproj.github.io/cd/">Argo CD</a></li>
<li><a href="github.com/sixfeetup/scaf">scaf: Provides developers and DevOps engineers with a complete blueprint for a new project</a></li>
<li><a href="sixfeetup.com/company/news/streamline-develope… the Dev Experience with Kubernetes and Scaf™</a></li>
<li><a href="sixfeetup.com/company/scaf-a-blueprint-for-dev… — Six Feet Up</a></li>
<li><a href="talkpython.fm/episodes/show/496/scaf-complete-…: Complete blueprint for new Python Kubernetes projects - Talk Python To Me Podcast E496</a></li>
<li><a href="kind.sigs.k8s.io/">kind</a></…;
<li><a href="locust.io/">Locust - A modern load testing framework</a></li>
<li><a href="grafana.com/">Grafana: The open and composable observability platform</a></li>
<li><a href="grafana.com/oss/loki/">Grafana Loki OSS - Log aggregation system</a></li>
<li><a href="prometheus.github.io/client_python/">P… - client_python</a></li>
<li><a href="docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/us… network interfaces - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud</a></li>
<li><a href="github.com/awslabs/eks-node-viewer">ek…: EKS Node Viewer</a></li>
<li><a href="github.com/derailed/k9s">k9s: 🐶 Kubernetes CLI To Manage Your Clusters In Style!</a></li>
<li><a href="orbstack.dev/">OrbStack · Fast, light, simple Docker & Linux</a></li>
<li><a href="wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Python">NixOS Wiki - Python</a></li>
<li><a href="youtube.com/c/techworldwithnana">TechW… with Nana - YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="youtube.com/watch?v=pqBqdNIPrbo">Python: The Documentary [OFFICIAL TRAILER] - YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="linkedin.com/in/calvinhp/">Calvin Hendryx-Parker - LinkedIn</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Conferences and Meetups:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="allthingsopen.org/events/all-things-open-2025&… Things Open 2025 - All Things Open</a></li>
<li><a href="allthingsopen.ai/">All Things Open AI Conference</a></li>
<li><a href="youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6kQg8bP1Ji4JC8KR_q… Things Open AI 2025 - AI Builders Track - YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="youtube.com/watch?v=HEawRMNGlMU&list=PL6kQ… out Enterprise AI: Tools, Insights, & Team Empowerment - Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Six Feet Up - YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="us.pycon.org/2025/">PyCon US 2025 - PyCon US 2025</a></li>
<li><a href="pyohio.org/2025/">PyOhio 2025</a></li>
<li><a href="meetup.com/indypy/events/">IndyPy Events</a></li>
</ul>
<p>AI Coding Tools:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="youtube.com/watch?v=Ix68u1MM3FY&t=1298s&qu… of the Bots - Developer Tools Showdown - YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="aider.chat/">Aider - AI Pair Programming in Your Terminal</a></li>
<li><a href="block.github.io/goose/">codename goose</a></li>
<li><a href="ollama.com/blog/continue-code-assistant"&… entirely open-source AI code assistant inside your editor - Ollama Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="mistral.ai/news/devstral">Devstral - Mistral AI</a></li>
<li><a href="coralogix.com/guides/llm-observability-tools/&… LLM Observability Tools to Know in 2025 - Coralogix</a></li>
<li><a href="simonwillison.net/2025/May/31/snitchbench-with… often do LLMs snitch? Recreating Theo’s SnitchBench with LLM</a></li>
<li><a href="simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/16/the-lethal-trife… lethal trifecta for AI agents: private data, untrusted content, and external communication</a></li>
<li><a href="github.com/RobertFischer/vllm-proxy">v…: Proxy for vLLM enabling multi-model operation, cache-aware routing, and load balancing.</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="realpython.com/courses/managing-dependencies-w… Dependencies With Python …