When a project or program grows 50%, that’s generally considered reasonable progress. 100%? Outstanding. 500%? Amazing. 1,000%? Over the top.

Then there is growth of 2,100%, which is the approximate percentage reported by TechRepublic for the share of Kubernetes jobs per million and Kubernetes job searches between 2015 and 2019. And that was before a global pandemic sent millions of people home this year and sparked further interest in learning new skills.

As the Cloud Native Computing Foundation prepares for an all-virtual KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020, which begins today, the CNCF has partnered with the Linux Foundation to handle increased demand for certification courses and exams in container orchestration technology. In January, CNCF announced that it had registered more than 100,000 people for a free Kubernetes introductory course.

Numbers such as these highlight continued interest in the cloud native world as the CNCF’s flagship European conference, rescheduled from its previous booking in March, will gather participants from open-source and cloud communities in a virtual format. Interest in thought leadership and skills training remains high for Kubernetes and other CNCF projects, as recent numbers attest.

TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, will be broadcasting interviews on Aug. 18 with key industry leaders during the event, including executives from the CNCF, Red Hat Inc., IBM, Splunk, and more. Discussion topics include product news, thought leadership on open-source developments and cloud native trends, how the CNCF is maintaining an interactive contributing community during COVID-19 restrictions and work-from-home demands, the continued importance of security as the digital transformation is being expedited today and ongoing support of Kubernetes by large-scale enterprises. (* Disclosure below.) 

Acquisitions continue

One continuing trend since the last KubeCon Europe gathering in May 2019 is that the pace of Kubernetes-related acquisitions does not appear to be slowing down. VMware Inc. followed its purchase of Heptio Inc. by acquiring Pivotal Software Inc. for $2.7 billion in December, and it added Kubernetes security startup Octarine Inc. in May.

Rancher Labs Inc., a Kubernetes management firm, was claimed by SUSE Group in July, and open cloud company Mirantis Inc. announced that it would buy the Kubernetes integrated development environment Lens from its authors earlier this month.

D2iQ Inc., a cloud platform provider that pivoted to Kubernetes last year, is reported to be in acquisition talks with Google LLC, but no deal has been announced.

Broader adoption

Another trend over the past year involves broader enterprise adoption of container and cloud native technologies. The results from a CNCF survey released in March showed that many cloud native technologies have become mainstream, with containers reaching 84% use in production, up from a mere 23% three years ago.

This evolution can be seen in the KubeCon Europe program as well. Sessions include panel members from Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. discussing Kubernetes security and a transformation to cloud native principles offered by representatives from Mastercard Inc., Spotify Inc. and the publisher Conde Nast.

Cloud-native adoption also extends to the public sector. Rancher Labs has embarked on a partnership with Fujitsu Ltd. in the United Kingdom to extend container orchestration technology within public sector institutions.

Project progress

Participants in this month’s KubeCon will undoubtedly be interested in what may be coming around the corner. While Kubernetes remains a central focus, CNCF manages dozens of projects in various stages of development.

There are a number of sessions on service mesh technology, which tracks with data gathered in the CNCF’s most recent survey. While only 20% of respondents are using a service mesh in production, 50% are in the process of evaluating its use.

A service mesh, such as the open-source project Istio, intercepts traffic into and out of a container. It offers a chance to improve one of the current enterprise IT pain points: the process of migrating existing architecture from monolith to microservices, which one technologist has labeled “an epic journey.”

Cloud native storage offers another area of future interest. Rook, the first CNCF-hosted project in the storage category, brings file, block and object storage into a Kubernetes cluster. It allows movement of the cloud native cluster across public and private clouds.

In yet another example of how cloud native technologies are becoming mainstream, the aptly named Rook was used by HBO on top of Prometheus servers to solve issues with Elastic Block Store. The show involved was “Game of Thrones.”

Livestream of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcast on theCUBE. You can register for free here to access the keynote sessions and several other features. For full access to the event, the fee is $75. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here. (* Disclosure below.)

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 virtual event, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 virtual event

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 include CNCF’s executive director, Dan Kohn, and general manager, Priyanka Sharma.

Also appearing on theCUBE are Red Hat’s Abhinav Joshi, senior manager of OpenShift product marketing; Joe Fitzgerald, vice president and GM of the management business unit; Brent Compton, senior director of storage, HCI and big data architectures; Jimmy Alvarez, principal product marketing manager; Nick Barcet, senior director for technology strategy; Steve Gordon, director of product management – cloud platforms; and Tushar Katarki, senior manager of OpenShift product management.

We will also be interviewing industry executives Sam Werner, vice president of offering management – storage at IBM; Vijoy Pandey, VP and chief technology officer of cloud and distributed systems at Cisco Systems; Sheng Liang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Rancher Labs; Murli Thirumale, co-founder and CEO of Portworx; Liz Rice, VP of open source engineering at Aqua Security Software; Ben Hirschberg, co-founder and VP of research and development at CyberArmor; Tenry Fu, co-founder and CEO of Spectro Cloud; and Tina Nolte, VP of product at Spectro Cloud.

Others joining theCUBE include industry experts Farbod Abolhassani, data science specialist of integrated health solutions at Medtronic; Constance Caramanolis, principal software engineer at Splunk Inc. and KubeCon co-chair; Katie Gamanji, cloud platform engineer at American Express and member of the Technical Oversight Committee at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation; and Jeff Klink, VP of engineering and cloud at Sera4 Ltd.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 Virtual Experience. Neither the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: The Linux Foundation