Scaling Kubernetes Workloads with Node Swap

Swap on Kubernetes nodes went from “absolutely not” to GA in v1.34, and this post finally puts numbers on it: Python sandboxes on gVisor from 80 to 240 concurrent pods per node, headless Chrome 80 to 160, and a kernel build finishing faster on half the RAM limit (374s vs 433s). The honest part is the ceiling, squeezing the same build to 200 MB cost 40%+ latency in thrashing. Insurance for burst memory, not a replacement for RAM.