Open Telekom Cloud Cloud Container Engine: Cloud Kubernetes Ledger

Part of the Managed Cloud Kubernetes Ledger (edition 2026-10-13). How the scores work: methodology.

1. Snapshot

Tier: European cloud
Owner: Deutsche Telekom AG through T-Systems; part of the T Cloud division since 2025-07-01
Licence model: Pay-as-you-go; CCE free up to 50 nodes without HA, hourly fee for larger or HA clusters (amount not read)
Products scored: CCE (Standard) and CCE Turbo clusters in EU-DE and EU-NL, Kubernetes 1.30 to 1.34
Latest release: Kubernetes 1.34 on CCE and CCE Turbo, 2026-07-17
Next signal: 1.35 and 1.36, Auto Pilot, Gateway API and Cluster Backup add-ons on the roadmap of 2026-08-28, no dates
Archetype: Sovereign German CCE
Evidence grade: B. Release notes, roadmap snapshots and the docs source repository were read directly; the docs site and the price calculator could not be fetched, and CCE is absent from the CNCF conformance lists.

Not ranked: Fails inclusion test 3 on the evidence: no T-Systems or Open Telekom Cloud CCE entry in cncf/k8s-conformance, its archive or the CNCF landscape. Test 4 passes (self-service booking).

2. Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	62.2 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+12.8 points	higher is better
Credibility	16.0 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	8.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	11.5 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	15.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	7.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	61.0 / 100	balanced weights

3. Capability by domain

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2016	2019	2022	Today
Versions, upgrades and support (12)	n/a	2	2.5	3
Nodes, autoscaling and compute choice (12)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3
Networking (10)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3
Storage and data protection (8)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3
Security and compliance (12)	n/a	2	3	3.5
Observability and day-2 operations (8)	n/a	1	2	3
Multi-cluster, hybrid and fleet (10)	n/a	1	1	2
Developer and app platform (8)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3
GPU and AI workloads (10)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3.5
Regions, sovereignty and SLA (10)	n/a	3	3.5	4
Total / 100	not released	33.6	49.4	62.2

Year by year: 2018: 32.6 · 2019: 33.6 · 2020: 33.6 · 2021: 33.6 · 2022: 49.4 · 2023: 49.4 · 2024: 49.4 · 2025: 49.4 · 2026: 62.2

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2019	GPU and AI workloads	1 → 1.5	+1.0	GPU add-on in preview from 2019-10-30
2022	Developer and app platform	1.5 → 2.5	+1.6	SWR as its own service 2020-05-12, Helm 3, add-on catalogue
2022	GPU and AI workloads	1.5 → 2.5	+2.0	T4 and Pi2 GPU flavors in CCE, GPU scheduling
2022	Networking	1.5 → 2.5	+2.0	Network policies with egress rules (docs 2022-07-13); Turbo pod ENIs with security groups in beta
2022	Nodes, autoscaling and compute choice	1.5 → 2.5	+2.4	Node pools and cluster autoscaler add-on; CCE Turbo announced as beta 2022-03-11
2022	Observability and day-2 operations	1 → 2	+1.6	Log and monitoring integration through platform services
2022	Regions, sovereignty and SLA	3 → 3.5	+1.0	EU-NL region in production since June 2021; C5 and ISO attestations
2022	Security and compliance	2 → 3	+2.4	Pod security policies 2021, service account token hardening 2022-12-20, platform BSI C5 and ISO 27001
2022	Storage and data protection	1.5 → 2.5	+1.6	EVS, SFS and OBS mounts with encryption options and mount settings
2022	Versions, upgrades and support	2 → 2.5	+1.2	1.23 released 2022-10-14; upgrades 1.15 to 1.17 and 1.19 to 1.21 to 1.23 enabled
2026	Developer and app platform	2.5 → 3	+0.8	Thirteen add-ons incl. NGINX Ingress and Volcano, CI/CD guides; serverless containers are a separate service
2026	GPU and AI workloads	2.5 → 3.5	+2.0	H100 in CCE from 2025-02-14 and again 2026-05-29, L4, GPU virtualisation, AI Suite add-on and Volcano; T4 and V100 retire 2026-12-31
2026	Multi-cluster, hybrid and fleet	1 → 2	+2.0	Up to 50 clusters per region in two regions; UCS fleet product only on the roadmap
2026	Networking	2.5 → 3	+1.0	Turbo GA 2025-04-11, IPv6 from 2024-04-28, NGINX Ingress add-on 2024-11-29; Gateway API and Dataplane V2 still planned
2026	Nodes, autoscaling and compute choice	2.5 → 3	+1.2	CCE Turbo GA 2025-04-11, clusters up to 2,000 nodes, Advanced HPA, H100 flavors; no serverless or spot nodes
2026	Observability and day-2 operations	2 → 3	+1.6	Cluster monitoring add-on 2024-06-26, log collection 2025-03-10, Grafana and node problem detector add-ons, pre-upgrade checks
2026	Regions, sovereignty and SLA	3.5 → 4	+1.0	Two EU regions, German operator, TISAX, C5, KRITIS, DORA addendum; SLA percentage not found and footprint is small
2026	Security and compliance	3 → 3.5	+1.2	Pod Security Admission, OIDC workload guidance, nine published vulnerability notices, C5, TISAX and ISO attestations; no image signing or confidential containers
2026	Storage and data protection	2.5 → 3	+0.8	Everest CSI for EVS, SFS, SFS Turbo and OBS; no first-party backup add-on yet (planned)
2026	Versions, upgrades and support	2.5 → 3	+1.2	Five supported minors with about two-year support, but 1.34 arrived 324 days after upstream, 1.26 never offered, and end-of-service dates were cut in 2025

4. Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-04	Kubernetes 1.25 on CCE	D1 Versions and lifecycle	P
2024-03	Kubernetes 1.27 on CCE	D1 Versions and lifecycle	P
2024-06	Cloud Native Cluster Monitoring add-on	D8 Observability and operations	C
2024-11	NGINX Ingress Controller add-on	D4 Networking	C
2025-02	H100 GPU flavor supported by CCE	D13 Accelerators	M
2025-04	CCE Turbo general availability	D2 Compute and autoscaling	P
2025-10	Kubernetes 1.32 on CCE	D1 Versions and lifecycle	P
2026-01	Open Telekom Cloud becomes T Cloud Public	D12 Packaging and pricing	V
2026-03	Kubernetes 1.33 in all regions	D1 Versions and lifecycle	P
2026-07	Kubernetes 1.34 on CCE	D1 Versions and lifecycle	P

Centre of gravity: Versions and lifecycle (5), Observability and operations (1), Networking (1)
Driver mix: Vision 10%, Customer need 20%, Market window 10%, Upstream 0%, Portfolio 60%

5. Credibility: 16.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3	Minor release about every 4 to 5 months since 2025, but each about 10 months behind upstream and no published calendar
Roadmap transparency	4	Public roadmap page with archived history plus dated release notes and a documented version policy
Say-do	3.5	6 of 8 roadmap items shipped within 12 months of first listing; CCE Turbo GA took 18.5 months, 1.33 took 15
Velocity	3	One or two substantive capabilities a quarter: Turbo GA, new minors, H100, add-ons
Lifecycle stability	2.5	About two years per version, but end-of-service dates were shortened by 3 to 9 months in 2025 and 1.26 was skipped

Say-do record, 2023 to 2026: Roadmap snapshots against release notes: 8 items first listed 2023 to 2024, all shipped, 6 within 12 months, 2 late (Turbo GA 18.5 months, 1.33 15 months); 6 more pending, confidential containers since 2023.

6. Commercial risk: 8.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Price and licence volatility	2	Common I/O disk end of sales 2025-07-01 and decommissioning 2026-12-31, GPU family retirements, rename to T Cloud Public; no control-plane fee change found
Purchase constraints	1	Self-service booking with a 250 euro credit; pay-as-you-go
Channel and access	1	Public pricing models and release notes; docs site behind a bot challenge; two regions
Owner stability	1.5	Deutsche Telekom subsidiary; reorganised into the T Cloud division in 2025 and renamed in 2026
Cost of staying supported	2.5	Two-year support windows without fees, but versions arrive about 10 months late and end-of-service dates were cut

Security record of the product itself: No cross-tenant or managed-control-plane flaw in CCE found for 2023 to 2026. Nine customer-action notices, including CVE-2026-31431 (in CISA KEV since 2026-05-01) and NVIDIA toolkit CVE-2025-23266.

7. Technical lock-in: 11.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1.5	Kubernetes API with Everest storage classes and ELB annotations; no CNCF conformance listing found
Export path	2	Velero-based migration guide; egress charges not read
Stack coupling	2.5	Everest CSI, ELB ingress and Turbo pod ENIs with provider security groups
Hardware / cloud coupling	4	Runs only in the two Open Telekom Cloud regions; UCS hybrid is planned, not released
Skills and tooling coupling	1.5	Standard kubectl and Terraform plus CCE console and add-on specifics

8. Integrator fit: 15.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	3.5	CIRCLE and TECH partner programmes listed on the site; not opened
Multi-tenancy and self-service	3.5	IAM projects and enterprise dashboards; per-region cluster quotas
API and infrastructure-as-code	4.5	Terraform provider with 7.2 million downloads, Crossplane provider 1.0 on 2026-09-04, Python SDK
Skills and certification	3.5	T Cloud Public certification programme since 2020-03-17 and a training catalogue

9. AI leverage: 7.0 / 20

Strand	Today	Latest step
AI workload support	3	2026: New H100 instance 2026-05-29; NVLink H100 only on the roadmap
AI platform stack	1.5	2026: ModelArts updates through 2026-09; Volcano scheduler on CCE
AI-assisted operations	1	2026: A support chatbot is listed; its scope was not read
Agent openness	1.5	2018: REST API, Terraform provider and Python SDK; no MCP server found

AI say-do: 3 tracked, 1 shipped (H100 in CCE), 2 pending (NVLink H100, confidential containers). GPU nodes are the substance; no MCP server and no confirmed assistant.

10. Reading

T Cloud Public builds toward a German sovereign container service on Huawei-derived CCE technology, with Turbo clusters, H100 nodes and add-ons as the next steps. The record shows a public roadmap that is mostly kept but late, Kubernetes minors that arrive about ten months after upstream, and end-of-service dates that were shortened in 2025. A buyer gets German operation, C5 and TISAX, and pays with old Kubernetes versions and no CNCF conformance listing.

11. Open questions and evidence caveats

The entry is unranked because no CNCF conformance listing was found; if T-Systems holds one under another name, flip rank to True.
Hourly prices for large or HA clusters and the CCE SLA percentage were not read (price calculator and service description PDF).
The documentation table that gives support dates follows the Huawei CCE documentation; OTC editors revised it in 2025.
Incident root causes for the February 2025 multi-service incidents are not stated; the 2026 Almere fire lasted 27 days on the status page.
Scores for 2018 to 2019 rest on the docs version table and one 2019 release note; several early cells were not confirmed.