The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) flagship conference - KubeCon - took place in Valencia this year for the European stop. This was my first in-person KubeCon and the first time for visiting this beautiful Spanish city.
The conference gathers adopters and technologists from leading open source and cloud native communities. Approximately 7,000 people attended the event in-person and another 10,000 online.
Later this year KubeCon + CloudNativeCon moves to Detroit for the North America event, from October 25-28, 2022, while next year’s Europe event will be hosted in Amsterdam on April 17-21, 2023.
Fun facts
Before digging into the serious stuff, I think it would be nice to mention some interesting fun facts. Here you go:
- The event was a reconfirmation that cool swag, like stickers, t-shirts, tote bags, is a magnet to any stand.
- I did not get COVID. Check out #KubeCovid for some reports on Twitter.
- Valencia is a beautiful city with lovely restaurants. If you love Japanese food, check out Kabuki Komori.
Meeting people
In-person events are great and you finally can talk to real people (how I missed that the past two years!). Above all, it is wonderful meeting end-users and re-establishing relationship with customers and friends.
A great Hallway Track, was me intentionally bumping into Styra’s CEO, Bill Mann (we kinda have the same surname). We chatted about the state of the industry, their Open Policy Agent solution and exchanged views regarding the conference.
I also had the pleasure to meet some of the key people in the CNCF Security Technical Advisory Group. I look forward with becoming more involve with the team and the acitivites within the EU region - thanks Emily and Andy.
Highlights
I’m sure you can guess, the most discussed topic at KubeCon was supply chain attacks - keynote from Spotify. 2021 was dominated by such attacks and their impact can be devastating. As businesses are more and more reliant on software components delivered through vast and complex supply chains, the impact of gaps and vulnerabilities in these components becomes a pressing challenge. Everyone is concerned about the issue and every vendor had a solution to offer to tackle the problem.
Besides supply chains, a topic that really perked my attention was the eBPF technology. eBPF is a technology with origins in the Linux kernel that can run sandboxed programs in an operating system kernel. It is used to extend the capabilities of the kernel safely and efficiently without changing kernel source code or load kernel modules. eBPF can be leveraged in many use cases, such as monitoring your data flows or implementing security policies. Since eBPF deploys in the host where containers are running, it helps overcome the mental resistance of deploying a software tool inside the app stack. Here is Liz’s talk at SecurityCon KubeCon EU on the subject.
Another topic that made an impression on me is how women role models can help diversity not only in cybersecurity but also in the software development industry. For example, when I was with Liz Rice and others taking in the sun after the conference one evening, a young lady cam up to us to thank Liz for inspiring her career and instilled confidence in her to develop and showcase her technical skills. This is great, and I would love to see more diverse workspaces in tech driven companies.
Final thoughts
The overall experience of KubeCon Europe 2022 was rewarding. However, there are a few lessons I learnt that can be useful for everyone planning to attend similar events.
- Reviewing and highlighting which talks to attend is important, but be prepared to improvise with hallway chats - they tend to turn out to be more insightful.
- If this scene is new to you, it is best to pair up with someone. Please look me up if you would like some company :-)
- Finally, compile a list of lovely restaurants to hit up and enjoy the company you have gathered.
I look forward to seeing you at the next KubeCon.
My wrap up of KubeCon EU 2022
