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What is Zombie Mode?

Zombie Mode is uses standard Kubernetes methods to power down specified workloads (often Dev, QA, Test, Staging) on a schedule.

It’s built for one reason: to stop you from wasting budget by idling resources when they aren't needed, without ever having to think about it. It's like those motion-activated light switches that automatically turn off when you leave the room. (Without the annoying parts!)

Why Zombie Mode matters:

  • Cloud bills balloon when forgotten workloads keep running.
  • Manual scripts and DIY schedulers are brittle.
  • Cloud-provider tools don’t incentivize saving.
  • Zombie Mode provides deterministic, fleet-wide, cross-cloud savings.

Key Benefits:

  • Deterministic: you can do the math. Typical 'nights and weekends' shutdown will result in ~68% cost savings.
  • Works across AWS, Azure, GCP, on-prem, hybrid. Anywhere you run clusters - managed or unmanaged
  • Keeps CI/CD pipelines functional even when replicas are at zero. No missed updates.
  • Fleet-wide scheduling with safe overrides.