Over the last few years, we’ve been leveraging cloud-native technologies as an end-user building the foundation for our Tech stack starting with Kubernetes, gRPC, Linkerd and then branching out to Helm, Grafana, Prometheus, Vault etc.
When it comes to Tech conferences, KubeCon has always been a beacon of learning and networking, a summit I longed to attend.
Last year, thanks to the Dan Kohn scholarship, my dream of attending KubeCon finally became a reality, and what better place to experience it than in the beauty of Amsterdam.
Before diving into KubeCon, I spent some time roaming around Amsterdam. The city is a marvellous blend of historic beauty and contemporary flair. From the iconic canals to the vibrant tulip markets, every corner of Amsterdam exudes a unique charm. The city's commitment to innovation and sustainability, evident in its architecture and lifestyle, resonated deeply with me
KubeCon started with co-hosted events, including ArgoCon, Linkerd Day, Observability Day etc I was slightly overwhelmed to start with given that it was my first Kubecon with multiple talks happening at the same time.
Co-hosted events were followed by an array of lightning talks, I enjoyed the short and impactful talks — my favourites were the CNCF Board game explained and the CFP: Begineer guide to conference speaking.
Keynotes from the CNCF team were packed with so much information especially it was a goosebumps moment to know that there were 10000 attendees and it was one of the largest open-source conferences in Europe at that time (Hopefully, Kubecon 2024 will break it soon 🤞)
Undoubtedly the highlight for me was the security track. I participated in the CTF organized by the Security Village, which offered hands-on experiences in real-world security scenarios.
Apart from that, the standout was Duffie Cooley’s talk — "Security observability with eBPF & Cilium" was particularly enlightening, delving deep into advanced security mechanisms.
The day was not just about learning; it also offered opportunities for professional networking and fun, with the KubeCrawl and CloudNative Fest adding a vibrant social dimension to the event.
The second day shifted focus towards the business aspect of cloud-native technologies. Kelsey Hightower's talk on "From Community to Customers" provided valuable insights into turning community engagement into business opportunities.