Kubecon NA 2024 Recap

KubeCon NA 2024 - Salt Lake City, Utah

With its breathtaking landscapes and stunning views, Salt Lake City did not disappoint as the host of the biggest cloud-native conference -> KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2024. We at Loft had a significant presence and thoroughly enjoyed the entire event.

Day 0: Platform Engineering Day, ArgoCon, and WasmCon

We were proud to be the Diamond Sponsor for Platform Engineering Day. Lukas delivered an insightful keynote titled “Promoting Common Standards Without Sacrificing Tenant Autonomy,” where he explored critical topics such as implementing common standards while maintaining tenant autonomy. He emphasized how vCluster supports tenant autonomy by providing the necessary isolation through separate control planes per tenant. You can watch the keynote here and learn more about vCluster here.

At our booth, we had engaging conversations with attendees who fell into three main categories:

• Those interested in understanding how multi-tenancy works with vCluster.
• Teams exploring POCs for their ongoing IDP efforts and seeking ways to integrate vCluster.
• Organizations looking to save costs by reducing the number of clusters with vCluster.

Beyond the exciting Platform Engineering Day, we also contributed with sessions at other co-located events, including ArgoCon and WasmCon:

• Dog Food Delight: How Argo Workflows Eats Its Own CI - Denise Schannon(Loft) & Tim Collins(Pipekit)

• Exploring the Landscape for Open Telemetry for Wasm - Shivay Lamba, Couchbase & Saiyam Pathak, Loft Labs

After a successful Platform Engineering Day, we transitioned to the main KubeCon event.

As Gold Sponsors, we had a fantastic experience at the booth. We hosted three book signings, all focused on platform engineering, which drew a massive crowd eager to grab copies. The booth was buzzing with activity as attendees came in large numbers to:

• Learn about our multi-tenancy approach.
• Share their appreciation for our DevPod open-source project and discuss how they were already using it.
• Explore new POCs for their organizations, focusing on cost-saving solutions and adopting a control plane per tenant instead of a cluster per tenant.

Here’s what our team had to say about their experience at KubeCon!

Lukas Gentele ~ It was fun to kick off KubeCon with a keynote at Platform Engineering Day. On day one, I already knew this was going to be an event with a ton of engaging conversations with many users from our vCluster community and many other amazing people from the cloud-native community overall. I cannot wait for KubeCon EU in London next year.

We released quite a few things at KubeCon 

• vCluster Cloud and Platform v4.1: vCluster Cloud, our managed solution makes adopting and exploring vCluster Platform easier than ever, and the new External Database Connector in Platform v4.1, which automates secure, scalable database provisioning for your virtual clusters. You can read more here.
• vCluster 0.21: This feature-packed release includes bi-directional sync and the new CRD sync, making synchronization even more effortless. Check out our video showcasing the new features and dive into the release notes here. 
• Platform v4.0: This update introduces significant UI enhancements and one of the most requested features -> connecting to the platform without requiring an agent. Read the full release details here. 

This year, KubeCon was divided into different themes, with each day focusing on a specific topic, as highlighted in the keynotes:

Day 1

Started with a discussion on patent trolls and how CNCF, alongside the Linux Foundation, is addressing these challenges. The theme then shifted to AI, featuring an impressive demonstration by CERN on building the next-generation setup with Kubernetes and projects like KUEUE to support petabyte-scale processing. There was also a strong focus on Dynamic Resource Allocation (DRA).

On Day 1, our Principal Developer Advocate, Saiyam Pathak, delivered two impactful sessions 

• Cloud Native Sustainability Speedrun: Tools from Infrastructure to application level - Saiyam and Saloni explored the entire cloud-native sustainability landscape, sharing practical scenarios for its application today. They also highlighted vCluster’s role in contributing to a sustainable Kubernetes ecosystem. 
• The Spice Must Flow Green: CNCF's Environmental Sustainability TAG - Saiyam and Marlow explained the TAG ENV initiative, its working groups, and how anyone can get involved in driving environmental sustainability in cloud-native projects.

Day 2

Focused entirely on security, with CNCF playing a crucial role in showcasing key security projects. Concepts such as SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) and projects like GUAC and various policy engines were highlighted during the keynotes. The discussions emphasized the importance of securing the entire supply chain, from building artifacts to deployment, while ensuring zero-CVE base images. CNCF reinforced the criticality of this area with several talks and sessions dedicated to advancing supply chain security practices.

Day 3

Celebrated the Kubernetes community, marking Kubernetes’ 10-year anniversary. The community, often credited as the backbone of Kubernetes’ success, has grown immensely over the years. With over 9,000 attendees at KubeCon, the day was dedicated to recognizing the community’s contributions. It also included discussions on key technology areas where CNCF continues to play a vital role.

The key technology areas highlighted by CNCF during the Day Three keynotes were:

• Cloud Native and AI: Developing AI applications and providing a complete cloud-native infrastructure for AI inferencing. Projects like Kubeflow and various Kubernetes features are critical as the cloud-native community works towards delivering a comprehensive set of tools to make cloud-native AI platforms easy and accessible for ML engineers.
• Cost Saving and Sustainability: Our very own Saiyam Pathak, the TAG ENV Sustainability Lead, is deeply passionate about advocating for sustainability from a tech standpoint. At vCluster, we play a significant role in efficiently utilizing Kubernetes resources, reducing the number of Kubernetes clusters in use, and thereby minimizing the overall environmental impact while saving costs.
• Multi-Cluster and Multi-Tenancy: Multi-cluster and multi-tenancy are pivotal. Projects need to seamlessly span across clusters, and multi-tenancy should be easy, not complicated. vCluster was one of the first multi-tenancy solutions, enabling Kubernetes multi-tenancy with ease. It allows you to create virtual Kubernetes clusters while maintaining a shared platform stack across all virtual clusters, ensuring security boundaries remain intact.
• Simplification: Technology thrives when it simplifies complex challenges, and CNCF emphasized this as well. vCluster simplifies multi-tenancy and cost-saving challenges in the easiest way possible. Without requiring any changes to your existing infrastructure, vCluster can transform your Kubernetes strategy entirely.

Overall, Team Loft had a really nice time at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we are looking forward to connecting with the Indian community at KubeCon India, where Saiyam Pathak will be speaking at the SOSS Community Day as well as the main KubeCon India event.