KubeCon Paris 2024: Train

The KubeCon 2024 in Paris was, after 2019 Barcelona and 2022 in Valencia, our third attendance at the CloudNativeCon. We were very excited to hear that the KubeCon would be in Paris, finally a destination that can be easily reached by train. It seems we were not the only ones who liked the idea of taking the train instead of the airplane to travel to the KubeCon. All over Europe, people organized themselves to travel together by train, which was later known as the Kubetrain Kubetrain What a cool idea and motto!

Reflecting on Growth and Community

Reflecting on KubeCon Paris 2024, it's impossible to ignore the palpable sense of growth and expansion compared to its predecessors. As someone who attended the event in 2019 and 2022, I was already astounded by its scale back then, but the 2024 edition took "bigger" to a whole new level.

Balancing Growth with Intimacy

On one side, it's very motivating to witness the burgeoning community and widespread adoption of Kubernetes. Celebrating its 10th year, Kubernetes has evolved into an exceptionally stable and reliable software, firmly establishing itself as a cornerstone of the industry. Its ubiquitous presence underscores its pivotal role in modernizing infrastructure and driving innovation across various sectors. In the midst of the grandeur and excitement of a big conference, I found myself longing for the charm of smaller gatherings. Though the bustling crowds and constant buzz are thrilling, there's something nostalgically sweet about the cozy intimacy and camaraderie of days gone by.

Learning Highlights: Internal Developer Platforms

KubeCon offers an abundance of learning opportunities and inspiration. One such highlight was the discussion around building an Internal Developer Platform using Backstage, which emerged as a prominent topic. Companies that have successfully implemented this platform shared invaluable insights across various aspects. Notably, the transformation of internal platforms into tangible products has brought product-centric thinking closer to platform teams. Questions regarding the needs of internal customers and simplifying developer UX have become central topics of discussion within these teams. As always, start small and try to continuously improve your service to meet your internal customers' needs.

The Evolution of OpenTelemetry

Reflecting on KubeCon 2019, I recall a pivotal moment, attending one of the smallest panel discussions in a room with around 40 people, when they explained the project of OpenTelemetry and how they planned to merge OpenTracing and OpenCensus. Fast forward five years, and OpenTelemetry has become ubiquitous, setting the standard for instrumentation, tracing, and metrics collection. Efforts are now underway to achieve similar standards for log management. Many vendors and solutions now support seamless data transmission and storage integration with their platforms. However, a notable gap remains: the absence of a standardized API/query language for further data processing once it's stored in your preferred datastore. This underscores the ongoing need for standardization and interoperability in the ever-evolving landscape of cloud-native technologies.

Flagger vs. ArgoRollout: A Personal Highlight

My personal highlight was the session where the maintainers of Flagger and ArgoRollout talked about the differences between their projects. I wish they would have had a bit more time to talk about the details. But the best part of KubeCon is that it allows you to talk directly to the maintainers and creators of the fabulous software we are using. And this is the best part for me and why I love to attend KubeCon.

What’s Missing?

Attendees of the KubeCon may find out, but one hot topic or let's call it buzzword is missing. It didn't feel important to me, that's why you didn't find it here. I'll let you find it out.

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