Introduction
I recently had the pleasure of attending KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 in Amsterdam, a sold-out event that brought together thousands of technologists and adopters of open source and cloud native projects from all around the globe. The conference was packed with engaging sessions, workshops, and panel discussions covering topics like Kubernetes, cloud-native applications, and DevOps. Typically there are three events each year, one in North America, one in Asia and one in Europe. This year, the European event took place from April 19th to 21st in Amsterdam at the RAI Convention Center. After 2019 in Barcelona this was my second attendance of the KubeCon conference.
A Growing Community in Full Bloom
Compared to my previous attendance in Barcelona in 2019, this year’s conference has witnessed significant growth in terms of attendees and exhibitors. With over 10,000 attendees, KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe, according to the event organizers, has become the largest open source conference in the europe. It was especially heartwarming to see that 58% of the participants were attending for the first time, a testament to the ever-growing interest in cloud-native technologies.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which hosted the event, has also experienced tremendous growth since its inception in 2015. Starting with Kubernetes as its only project, the CNCF now hosts an impressive 159 projects, addressing the complexities of cloud-native deployment, security, and developer experience. Therefore, this year’s event slogan “Community in Bloom” fit very well.
The event itself was held in a spacious venue, allowing attendees to engage in discussions and attend sessions without feeling too crowded. The organizers went to great lengths to ensure a comfortable experience for everyone, even adjusting the number of attendees per talk on the second and third days of the conference.
Emphasizing Security and Sustainability
Following the daily keynotes, attendees had the opportunity to explore numerous parallel tracks tailored to their interests, creating a unique and personalized adventure for each participant. The breakout sessions varied in technical depth, offering general overview presentations on specific projects or workflows, as well as highly technical presentations on particular implementations or the usage of individual projects. In my observation, two themes stood out prominently: Security and Sustainability.
A multitude of presentations focused on enhancing security for the operation of cloud platforms or distributed applications. In terms of sustainability, several intriguing approaches were showcased for operating clusters with minimal overhead, thereby reducing the number of idle components. Furthermore, innovative methods were presented for estimating the ecological footprint of individual application operations.
Beyond the presentations, attendees had the chance to engage in conversations with numerous manufacturers, users, or developers at the exhibition. This interactive aspect further enriched the conference experience and fostered connections within the cloud-native community.
Inside Envoy
On Thursday evening, the captivating documentary “Inside Envoy” premiered at the event. This film delves into the origins and meteoric rise of one of today’s most significant open source projects in the community. “Inside Envoy” takes you to the heart of the action, revealing how the project first emerged as an in-house solution within ride-sharing giant Lyft, before quickly evolving into a game-changing innovation that has shaped the careers of those involved in its creation.
Summary
For me, attending KubeCon was absolutely worth it. I learned a lot and took extensive notes during the various sessions. I plan to delve deeper into specific subjects and explore individual projects, which will for sure take some time. It’s still worth checking out the event schedule, as many presentation slides are available there. Additionally, a YouTube playlist has been published, allowing one to catch up on any presentations one may has missed.
Next year’s KubeCon Europe is set to take place from March 19th to 22nd in Paris. It makes sense to mark these dates in your calendar – see you there!