Blimey! KubeCon London has just concluded – and it was the most attended KubeCon ever, surpassing even the largest U.S.-based shows. In a funny twist of fate, the CNCF keeps picking cities close to my heart: I studied in Valencia (host of KubeCon 2022); last year’s event was held in the city where I was born; and now London – the UK city I lived in when I first moved here, nearly 20 years ago.
Perhaps one day, the cloud-native community will descend on Manchester – my home for over a decade. Fingers crossed.
As ever, here are my top takeaways from the event:
Back in London
The last time KubeCon came to London was nine years ago: KubeCon 2016 was not only the first European edition — it coincided with the release of Kubernetes 1.2, which introduced the Deployment and ConfigMap APIs. The rooms were smaller, the A/V equipment basic (watch the videos if you don’t believe me) and the agenda minimalist. But with only a few hundred attendees, it would have been easier to find your way around the conference, bump into people and build lasting relationships.
KubeCon London 2016 was also where it was first announced that Kubernetes would be joining the newly formed Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
Doesn’t it feel like a lifetime ago?
There was no discussion of running AI/ML workloads back then – frankly, the community was still unsure whether Kubernetes could ever run enterprise applications and whether it could overcome its stateless origins to support databases and other traditional workloads.
Interestingly, federating clusters was already something the community was trying to solve. Multi-cluster remains a complex topic: at our booth, I had several conversations with users about how to address connectivity, load balancing and security across clusters with technologies such as Cilium Cluster Mesh (Marco and Arthur‘s deep dive at CiliumCon will be worth watching, once the recording is online).
I know many people would like to go back to the days where KubeCon was a much smaller event but the size of the conference is also a reflection of Kubernetes’ success. And that’s a success the host country could rightfully claim some credit for.
The UK’s Vital Contribution to Kubernetes
In last year’s recap, I highlighted the work of French innovators in the cloud-native space. My compatriot Solomon Hykes created Docker – without which there would have been no Kubernetes, or at least it would probably have emerged in a very different form. Given the long-standing rivalry between France and the United Kingdom, I am loathe to admit that the Brits might have had an even more influential role in developing Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem.
In total, the UK is the third-largest contributor to Kubernetes according to GitHub data, and the UK-based Tim Bannister was the top individual contributor to Kubernetes over the past year.
Alexis Richardson (GitOps and FluxCD creator and former chair of the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee), Cheryl Hung (former Ecosystem VM at the CNCF), Matt Barker (cert-manager creator and co-founder of Jetstack), Justin Cormack (Docker CTO), Andrew Martin (ControlPlane co-founder and CNCF Security TAG Co-chair emeritus) and, finally, our own Liz Rice (former chair of the ToC and author of multiple books amongst many other achievements) – it’s quite the list of UK-based individuals that have had an exceptional impact on the success of Kubernetes.
Our friends at OpenUK published a fascinating report into the UK’s influence into Kubernetes, which is certainly worth a read.
With KubeCon being hosted in London, it was only natural that Liz played a prominent role throughout the event. You would have seen her share the Cilium and Tetragon project update in front of some of the major London sights…
… and reflect, during the Day 2 keynote with Katie Gamanji and Joseph Sandoval, on the CNCF’s challenges and evolution as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The Kubestronaut Program Turns Gold
The Kubestronaut Program was introduced last year to recognise individuals who have successfully passed every CNCF Kubernetes Certification (CKA, CKAD, CKS, KCNA & KCSA).
In London, the CNCF announced the higher sphere where only individuals with all 13 CNCF certifications + LFCS can ascend to: the Golden Kubestronaut program.
Given the breadth of skills required to pass all exams, becoming a Golden Kubestronaut is quite the achievement – it requires a rare blend of platform engineering, security and networking skills.
We can help you with one of the required certifications on the program: the Cilium Certified Association (CCA).
Last year, we worked closely with the CNCF and led the technical development of the CCA. Our FAQ can help you prepare for the CCA. We particularly recommend our library of hands-on labs to build your practical knowledge of Cilium, prior to taking the exam. Over 30,000 of you have taken labs since we started the program 3 years ago and we know that many of the successful CCA candidates have used them to prepare.
eBPF-Fueled Innovation Continues
I heard some attendees mention that a few talks during the week weren’t technical enough.
Not at CiliumCon.
Liz and Neha from Microsoft dived into running Cilium for optimal performance and scale while Tamilmani and Will (also from Microsoft) walked through Delegated IPAM, an interesting method to offload IP address Management (and something I should add to my detailed Cilium IPAM guide).
I would also highly recommend G-Research’s “Cilium at Scale” presentation: during CiliumCon and Cloud Native Rejekts, Luigi Zhou and Isovalent’s James Laverack (one of my co-authors for the upcoming “Cilium: Up and Running” book) explained how the quantitative research and technology firm runs 4 to 5 million machine learning jobs a day, why G-Research chose Cilium to run and secure their multi-tenant infrastructure, and the issues they overcame.
Let’s stay on the topic of AI.
AI Hype Continues to Equally Frustrate and Excite
Last year, I wrote that the hot topics at KubeCon 2024 were AI, Wasm and eBPF. This year, WebAssembly didn’t feel quite as prominent – perhaps because it had its own dedicated conference just the week before. Platform Engineering and AI were arguably the most talked-about topics.
I won’t talk at length about platform engineering as we will be sharing more content around the awkward relationship between Platform Engineering and networking later on this year – and how best to repair it with the Isovalent Platform.
While last year’s AI buzz centred on running LLMs on Kubernetes, this year’s focus shifted toward Agentic AI and MCP, with the recent introduction of the Model Control Protocol by Anthropic.
I met plenty of folks who were slightly exasperated by the volume of AI content. I can see why – as excited as I am about the opportunities (as I wrote in my “Networks Under AI Pressure – Can Cilium Provide Relief” blog post), many of the AI use cases presented didn’t feel particularly relevant to most attendees.
KubeCon finds itself in an awkward spot – trying to cater to platform and DevOps engineers, while also positioning itself as the AI conference. I’m not convinced there’s much overlap between those those deeply invested in CNCF projects and those working hands-on with AI tooling – but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
IRL FTW
We’ve all become so used to working remotely (well, except for those who’ve been mandated back to the office ) that the KubeCon crowd can feel a bit daunting. Still, I genuinely loved seeing people in person. I must have spoken to hundreds of people over the course of the week and I will remember many of those chats and encounters; even the brief ones.
What I told many during some of the mentoring sessions I had during the week (see below) is that attendees should make the most of being in-person. Live sessions are great, but they’re recorded. There’s simply no way to capture the creativity and serendipity that happens when you’re face-to-face — the spontaneous ideas, the offhand comments that spark something new, the connections that only happen in the hallway.
What you definitely can’t do remotely is eat and party! Every year, our Hive Mind Mingle attracts leaders from the eco-system, Cilium users and Isovalent customers. The latter were treated to a number of events, such as the Customer Appreciation Breakfast, the German Stammtisch and the Swiss Apéro (we love looking after our customers). Even our canine friends enjoy the occasion.
Don’t Give Up on Making the Community Inclusive
Between Cisco Live, VMworld and KubeCon, I’ve had the fortune of attending over 15 conferences over the years; often at the cost of my employer. I admit I take it for granted. Not everyone is as fortunate.
To ensure the CNCF remains a diverse community and welcomes those who may not have the financial means to travel to CNCF events like KubeCon, the Dan Kohn scholarship helps underrepresented and/or marginalized persons and community contributors.
I’m delighted that Isovalent continues its support of the scholarship, having proudly sponsored it since 2022.
It was a pleasure for Carla and me to meet some of the scholarships recipients – like Jana, Chukwudi and Sai Ravi – and to hear how much attending the conference meant to them.
I know DEI’s reputation has suffered in recent times. Whatever opinion you may have about making the workplace a more inclusive and equitable place, I hope you’ll agree that a more diverse community can only make KubeCon a healthier event and Kubernetes a better project. The same applies to Cilium.
As the Diamond sponsor of CiliumCon, we get the opportunity to present a 5-minute keynote. I am glad Donia used that time to celebrate Cilium’s success through the prism of its diversity of minds, contributors and users.
A Show Within the Show
Our booth was its own micro-show within the solution showcase. We had a full track of book signings, live talks and demos, covering Cluster Mesh, Tetragon, Gateway API, the Splunk Integration and the newest member of the Isovalent Platform – the Isovalent Load Balancer (we’ve been teasing it for a little while but the wait is nearly over).
If you missed out on these demos, you can sign up for the webinar on 29th April where Jeremy and Raphaël will take you through all the different cornerstones of the Isovalent Enterprise Platform:
Meet the Isovalent Platform: Connect, Secure, and Scale Kubernetes
Networking for Kubernetes ! Runtime Security including an integration with Splunk ! Load Balancing ! Mesh Networking!
Join us!
Wishes for Next Year
Next year, KubeCon will be back in Amsterdam, 3 years after its last visit to the Netherlands. By then, I hope that:
- The world is in a slightly less turbulent place
- The conference still continues to be inclusive and welcoming
- The Cilium: Up and Running book is ready for you to read!
The next major conferences you will find us will be the Red Hat Summit in Boston (May 19-22, 2025) and Cisco Live San Diego (June 8-12, 2025). See you there?
Thanks for reading.
Prior to joining Isovalent, Nico worked in many different roles—operations and support, design and architecture, and technical pre-sales—at companies such as HashiCorp, VMware, and Cisco.
In his current role, Nico focuses primarily on creating content to make networking a more approachable field and regularly speaks at events like KubeCon, VMworld, and Cisco Live.
