As a platform engineer living in Hong Kong, attending KubeCon for the first time was an incredible opportunity to see the principles of platform engineering in action. The conference showcased a plethora of technologies that I am eager to experiment with on my home server. Here’s a recap of my experience, insights, and what I plan to do next.

Keynote Highlights

Opening Remarks by Jim Zemlin

• Speaker: Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation
• Key Points:
  • The focus on critical open-source software and its expansion into hardware and standards.
  • Discussion on AI opportunities, including model hubs and AI safety.

Accelerating Electric Vehicle Innovation

• Speakers: Kevin Wang (Huawei) & Saint Jiang (NIO)
• Key Points:
  • The use of KubeEdge for managing electric vehicles as edge nodes, demonstrating real-world applications of cloud-native technologies.

Hong Kong's Role in Open Source and AI

• Speaker: Stormy Peters, VP of Communities, GitHub
• Key Points:
  • Hong Kong is rapidly growing in GitHub accounts, with strong support for open-source initiatives from local companies and the government.

Technical Sessions and Insights

Multi-Cluster Management

• Speakers: Jeremy Olmsted-Thompson (Google), Hongcai Ren (Huawei), Jian Qiu (Red Hat)
• Key Points:
  • The introduction of the Cluster Inventory API for orchestration, crucial for handling workloads that exceed current cluster capabilities.

Project Lightning Talks

• Key Technologies:
  • nerdctl: A Docker-compatible CLI for containerd, which I plan to use for container management.
  • Karmada: An evolution of Kubernetes federation, perfect for multi-cluster management.
  • Xline: A distributed storage engine designed for wide-area networks, enhancing data management across clusters.

Networking and Community Engagement

The networking opportunities were invaluable. I connected with other platform engineers and developers, sharing insights and discussing the future of platform engineering. The collaborative spirit of the conference inspired me to contribute to open-source projects as a consumer, leveraging the knowledge gained from these interactions.

Takeaways and Future Plans

• Experimentation at Home: I’m excited to implement the technologies discussed at KubeCon on my home server.

• Blogging about My Journey: I aim to document my experiments and findings in a series of blog posts. Sharing my learning process will not only help me solidify my understanding but also contribute to the community.

• Open Source Contribution: I intend to engage with open-source projects, starting small by utilizing existing technologies and gradually contributing to their development.

Conclusion

KubeCon 2024 in Hong Kong was an eye-opening experience that deepened my understanding of platform engineering and cloud-native technologies. The insights gained and connections made will undoubtedly shape my future projects and contributions to the community. I encourage fellow developers to immerse themselves in such conferences—it's a fantastic way to learn, network, and grow in our ever-evolving field.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blog posts where I will share my experiments and insights as I dive deeper into the technologies showcased at KubeCon!