The Build & Operate product is a fully managed dataspace environment built by T-Systems. It eliminates the technical complexity of dataspace infrastructure, letting teams focus on building applications, sharing data with full sovereignty, and participating in trusted ecosystems such as Catena-X.
Central to the Build & Operate has always been its preconfigured operation toolkit: a curated set of tools that give dataspace operators a fast and intuitive way to manage their environments. Among these tools, Kubeapps, the open-source, web-based Helm application manager, was embedded in Build & Operate as the go-to interface for deploying and managing Kubernetes applications within customer dataspaces.
Kubeapps was deprecated
VMware officially deprecated and archived the Kubeapps project. While the tool had served the Kubernetes community well for several years, the decision reflected a broader shift in the ecosystem: standalone Helm user interfaces were no longer sufficient to meet the growing demands of complex, multi-cluster, production-grade environments.
For Build & Operate, this was a pivotal moment. As a platform that prides itself on always being aligned with the latest standards and future-ready without vendor lock-in, relying on a deprecated tool was not an option. We needed to identify a replacement that would not just fill the gap, but actively advance our capability to serve dataspace operators and customers.
For teams who had built production workflows around Kubeapps, it was both a challenge and an opportunity: the chance to modernize our Kubernetes application management strategy and adopt a platform built for the demands of today.
Entering Devtron: A platform built for modern dataspaces
After evaluating the landscape of Kubernetes management tools, we selected Devtron as the successor to Kubeapps within the Build & Operate operation toolkit. Devtron is an open-source, native Kubernetes management platform trusted by many organizations worldwide. It offers a unified control plane for application delivery, infrastructure management, security, and observability all from a single, friendly interface.
“Devtron unifies app and infrastructure management with an AI teammate to simplify operations and accelerate delivery.” — devtron.ai
Devtron remains fully open-source, a non-negotiable requirement, given our commitment to transparent, community-aligned, and standards-compliant dataspace infrastructure. It is actively maintained and developed, and backed by a growing ecosystem of integrations.
Image 2. Devtron architecure (source)
Kubernetes app management
At the heart of Devtron is its Kubernetes dashboard, a centralized control plane that provides complete visibility into every cluster, namespace, workload, and resource. Unlike the app-centric view of Kubeapps, Devtron gives platform and operations teams a true 360-degree view of their infrastructure.
Devtron’s app management capabilities include:
- Unified Helm release management: deploy, configure, and roll back Helm applications through an intuitive UI, with no CLI required
- Multi-cluster dashboard: manage applications and resources across multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single interface
- GitOps integration: seamless support for both ArgoCD and FluxCD, providing full audit trails and automated reconciliation
- Live manifest editing: inspect, edit, and apply Kubernetes manifests in real time without leaving the dashboard
- Configuration drift detection: compare and reconcile configuration differences across environments to prevent drift
- Resource browser: visualize all workloads, ConfigMaps, secrets, networking, RBAC policies, and CRDs in one place
For dataspace operators on Build & Operate, this level of centralized control directly reduces operational overhead and increases the speed at which new applications can be tested, validated, and deployed.
Experience without the complexity
One of the founding principles of Build & Operate is that customers should be able to build and operate dataspace applications without being Kubernetes experts. Devtron reinforces this principle: its interface is designed so that engineers and application developers can deploy, manage, and monitor applications without writing YAML or depending on a dedicated DevOps resource for every change.
This directly supports our promise to get customers from idea to application, reducing friction, accelerating iteration, and maintaining compliance with dataspace governance policies at every step.
How the transition works in Build & Operate
The transition from Kubeapps to Devtron within the B&O managed environment follows two clear phases, designed to minimize disruption and maximize operational continuity.
Phase 1: Inventory and visibility
Devtron’s resource browser gives operators instant visibility into all existing workloads upon installation; no manual re-cataloguing required. For Build & Operate customers migrating from Kubeapps, this means zero dark period: all running services remain visible and manageable from day one.
Phase 2: Governance and onboarding
Build & Operate’s built-in trust framework requires that every tool in the operation toolkit upholds strict access governance. Devtron supports single sign-on (SSO) providers and fine-grained RBAC for the open-source version, ensuring every team member can be given precisely the right level of access, no more and no less.
With Devtron now part of the Build & Operate operation toolkit, dataspace operators get a more powerful, future-ready foundation without any added complexity.
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