KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India 2024

Traditionally, Network Management System (NMS) are very important and complex systems designed to help network operators from large service providers to small enterprises handling new service deployment, device lifecycle management, and fault management. However, their monolithic architecture combined all functions into one system, causing scalability issues and inefficiencies. The siloed design also impeded network management by isolating functions and restricting real-time monitoring. To address these constraints, we transitioned to a cloud-native architecture. We leveraged a comprehensive suite of open-source and CNCF technologies, including service mesh (Istio), container orchestration (Kubernetes), observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenSearch, Fluent Bit), and ingress gateway solutions (MetalLB, NGINX). This transformation resolved legacy issues while future-proofing our customers' networks, ensuring they stay agile, efficient, and prepared for future challenges.

With 178 projects, various SIGs & countless ways to contribute, it may be confusing to know where to start in the vast world of cloud-native tech. With my former intern Anushka's help, we'll break down barriers & share our personal journeys within the CNCF ecosystem. Whether you're considering GSoC, joining the shadow release program, fixing a typo in documentation, there's a place for you. We'll use hip hop elements—MCing, DJing, break dancing, art, & knowledge to illustrate how cloud-native is a union of diverse components. You'll get practical advice on taking that crucial first step, with concrete examples of how people from different backgrounds have done it—writing blogs, designing the Kubernetes Mandala, singing at Kuberoke, playing guitar at KubeJam or making their first pull request. By the end, you'll have actionable steps & the confidence to begin or deepen your cloud-native journey. Join us to celebrate the diversity of contributions & get inspired—plus, there'll be a rap!

Fidelity's journey to cloud started about a decade ago with Cloud Foundry. Open-Source adoption was our first step towards digital transformation and from there today we sit on a CNCF tools stack of Kubernetes, Backstage, Harbor, Elastic, Postgres, Argo, Kafka, Helm, Open Telemetry, Jenkins, TF, Cilium, AWS, Azure, et al. Neil Armstrong once said, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" about his first step on moon; so was the case of Fidelity with CF adoption towards wider adoption. It was never an easy sail towards Open Source CNCF landscape adoption since Fidelity being a global financially regulated organization, has its own challenges for industry regulations and embedded culture. We have divided and conquered the goal taking on the challenges unified but in distributed work streams across the organization. In this talk we would like to share this journey, experience, and learnings with others to help their adoptions of cloud native tools at an enterprise scale.

Join me as I share my transformative journey from a regular user to a maintainer of Flux CD, a popular GitOps tool for Kubernetes. Open-source software thrives on the contributions of passionate individuals who go above and beyond to support and enhance the community. My journey with Flux CD began as a user, where I leveraged its powerful GitOps capabilities to streamline Kubernetes deployments. However, my desire to give back led me to become a maintainer. In this talk, I will recount my path, the challenges I faced, and the invaluable lessons I learned. Attendees will gain insights into the inner workings of open-source communities, the responsibilities of maintainers, and practical advice for those aspiring to contribute at a deeper level. This session is perfect for developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone interested in open-source contributions and Kubernetes.

Contributing to open-source projects like Istio can be a transformative experience, but how do you begin? In this session, Adil Mohamed M P, a computer engineering student from India and an LFX mentee, will share his personal journey on how the LFX Mentorship program has eased his cloud-native debut. He will share his contributor experience to one of the most popular CNCF projects, Istio, and how he was part of the latest Service mesh buzz word "Ambient Mesh". Adil will discuss how the LFX mentorship program has equipped him with the skills to excel in open-source development and collaboration. Whether you’re a beginner looking to contribute or an experienced developer seeking to give back, this session will offer valuable tips, and a roadmap for making meaningful contributions to cloud-native projects.

Explore AI innovation with the "Generative AI Demo using Open Data Hub," an open-source AI/ML platform tailored for Kubernetes. This demo features two Mistral-based LLMs, one utilizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with PostgreSQL vector extensions, and another without. Users interact through a Gradio chatbot, demonstrating how RAG improves accuracy. Two persona-based pipelines (Admin & Data Scientist) highlight Open Data Hub’s seamless integration with Tekton-powered OpenShift Pipelines, showcasing the Hybrid Cloud Strategy. Key components include the Kubernetes Platform, Node Feature Discovery, NVIDIA GPU Operators, Software Defined Storage, Tekton, Argo CD (for GitOps), Gitea Operator, Knative and Istio. Join us to see how GPU-accelerated AI and scalable, secure infrastructure power next-gen applications.