The atmosphere at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe was a blend of nostalgia and anticipation as Kubernetes marked its tenth anniversary.

The event included a retrospective look at the journey of Kubernetes, with stories from early community members that added a personal touch to the celebration. Kubernetes has transcended its initial role as a tool to become a key player in various industries.

“Kubernetes has been a tool for 10 years, but it has not been deployed across verticals at scale until honestly fairly recently. With AI pushing some of that tech stack forward … they need the excitement and the hype and the gateway,” said Savannah Peterson (center), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. “If we’re going to do nostalgia, show me a bunch of really cool applications of Kubernetes at the edge and fun stuff, so I can turn around and tell my friends and family, this is where Kubernetes is running and this is why I’m excited about this technology. And why I’m proud to be a part of the cloud-native community.”

Peterson, along with her co-hosts and industry analysts Rob Strechay (pictured, right) and Dustin Kirkland (left), kicked off the third day of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE. They discussed celebrating the tenth anniversary of Kubernetes, reflecting on its evolution and impact while also looking forward to its future integration with artificial intelligence and cloud-native technologies. (* Disclosure below.)

The next chapter in Kubernetes’ future

The analysts also focused on the future trajectory of Kubernetes, expressing a desire for more forward-looking content at the conference. The integration of AI into the Kubernetes ecosystem was a topic of interest, with significant potential to push the technology stack forward.

The developer experience and the UX of cloud-native technologies are important. There is a need to simplify operations amid growing complexity, according to Strechay. Along with that, there is a need for greater focus on security for both individual solutions and the conference.

“The software factory aspect in tying things back into AI … what people are really looking to do is build cloud-native applications, and AI is just going to be a cloud-native application,” Strechay said. “I think some of the talks we’ve had this week with people about AI being integrated, especially on the UX side … ‘I don’t want to use a prompt all the time; I don’t necessarily want to talk to my AI all the time. I want it to be there like I don’t even notice it’s there.’ I think that’s where AI is going to go.”

The event, among other things, celebrated a decade of Kubernetes, acknowledging its profound impact on the technology industry while also pointing to the need for a forward-thinking approach. As Kubernetes enters its second decade, the anticipation for its expanded role in AI and cloud-native applications is palpable, pointing toward a future where it continues to be a key driver of technological innovation.

“I really think if we take AI and security and put those two together and really say that, we’ve got secured toolchains, supply chains, models, the whole thing,” Kirkland said. “We can deploy that at the edge in the backend infrastructure and know that our precious data that’s being used to train those models is secured. I really hope that’s a mostly a solved problem.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe event. No sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE