KubeCon India 2024 Complete Recap

Hello folks, 👋

KubeCon India 2024 was an experience we'll never forget. Delhi hosted the first KubeCon in India on December 11-12. This wasn't just another tech conference; it was a milestone for 200,000 developers who are reshaping the technology landscape.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation brought Kubernetes experts from across the globe to our backyard.

Our Facets team arrived with excitement buzzing through our veins. Adi, Ishaan, Jyanav, and Rohit walked into the conference center, notebooks ready and caffeine levels high. Chris Aniszczyk from CNCF kicked off the event with a keynote that set the tone for two incredible days of innovation. We dove deep into the most exciting tech trends of the moment:

• Platform Engineering: Companies are revolutionizing how they build and manage infrastructure. Expedia shared their GitOps journey, showing how they manage thousands of applications with unprecedented efficiency. Their approach isn't just a strategy - it's a complete transformation of how tech teams operate.
• GenAI Workflows: The most exciting talks centered around artificial intelligence. Developers are connecting tools in ways we never imagined possible. Open-source projects are breaking down barriers between different technologies, creating workflows that seemed like science fiction just months ago.
• Cloud-Native Security: With cyber threats evolving constantly, companies are getting smarter. Intuit's presentation on DNS failover strategies showed how robust security can be built into core infrastructure.
  
  

Our team split up during the event—some were busy attending talks, while others were chatting with interesting people and having fun.

We had so many great conversations and learned a lot from the sessions. By the way, we've captured everything in our Recap blog, from field notes on the top talks about platform engineering, SDLC, AI, and more, to what we experienced at KubeCon and how it impacts India.

But the real magic happened after the talks. ⚡️

We had a mixer planned for later on Day 1; throughout the event we gave away our DevOps AfterHours tickets to senior folks in platform engineering who are leading the space. We headed over to Underdoggs for our Mixer. We didn’t expect much, but to our surprise, a lot of people showed up.

Everyone seemed eager to join and chat about the future of platform engineering. Honestly, our mixer became the talk of the night!

The event kicked off around 7 PM, and we weren't expecting the massive turnout. Everyone wanted to be part of our mixer. Our topic? Demystifying "Shift-Left" in practice.

We kicked off our conversation by diving into the "what" and "why" of the shift-left philosophy. Rather than treating it as just another industry buzzword, Saurabh Mishra laid the groundwork by explaining how it redefines the way we approach software development and operations. Shift-left involves moving processes like testing and security earlier in the development cycle, which leads to quicker feedback, higher quality, and more resilient systems.

Jaideep Khandelwal then took the discussion further, noting that shift-left isn't just a technical change—it’s a cultural transformation. It's about changing the mindset of teams, making them more collaborative and proactive.

Rohit then dove deeper into the technical enablers of shift-left, explaining that it's not about simply moving responsibilities around; it's about creating frameworks that enable teams to act with greater efficiency and autonomy. As the conversation unfolded, we naturally transitioned into platformization. We discussed how shift-left plays a critical role in platform development, particularly in making platforms more automated and self-service for teams.

Chinmay Naik highlighted the importance of continuous delivery in this context, emphasizing DORA metrics (DevOps Research and Assessment) as a way to measure software delivery performance.

Finally, Rohit brought a leadership perspective to the table, focusing on how success in shift-left is not just about implementing tools but about having confidence in key guarantees—such as consistent quality throughout the lifecycle.

For Factes.Cloud, this conversation is incredibly relevant. As a platform, we are committed to adopting shift-left practices to deliver better services. After the mixer, we enjoyed drinks and dinner while making meaningful personal connections. It turned out to be more than we expected—great conversations, delicious food, and lasting relationships. As night grew late, people began heading back to their hotels as Day 2 awaited.

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Day 2 kicked off with an exciting announcement from Linux Foundation. LF India was launched with a focus on driving innovation in key tech areas like cloud-native technologies and AI. We attended even more insightful talks on Day 2 such as:

• "Ensuring Reliability of Production Ready Kubernetes Operators Using Envtest" by Aniruddha Basak and Rayan Das
• "A Debugging Journey from Coredns to Coreutils" by Akhil Mohan and Humble Devassy Chirammal

As KubeCon came to a close, we reflected on all that we learned:

• The importance of platform engineering in shaping scalable systems.
• How GenAI workflows are revolutionizing development processes.
• The rise of platform engineering to build scalable systems. Companies like Swiggy, Amdocs, Airbus, Groww, and EarnIn are actively building robust platform engineering teams, validating that companies are moving towards platform engineering.
• Shift-left is gaining traction as companies like NielsenIQ are building teams that integrate security, DevOps, and more earlier in the development process—a principle we’re building on at Facets.
• GenAI workflows are automating tasks like code generation, testing, and bug detection, streamlining dev pipelines and boosting efficiency.
• The role of continuous delivery and DORA metrics in improving performance.
• How shift-left practices enhance collaboration.
• The value of creating a culture of ownership across all teams for lasting impact.

KubeCon 2024 was an incredible experience! Looking ahead, KubeCon Europe will be held next year with KubeCon 2025 announced for Hyderabad. We’re excited to see where this journey takes us next!

Thanks for reading through our recap of KubeCon India 2024! If you need any further adjustments or specific terms hyperlinked differently, please let me know!