Kubernetes is bringing container orchestration to the masses as an open-source platform, but such rapid expansion can be dangerous. How can the community remain stable as the cloud-native wave roars across the Atlantic and engulfs the world?

“What is incredibly important is to see the mistakes that have been made in the past so that people don’t repeat them,” said Lauren Cooney (@lcooney), founder and chief executive officer of Spark Labs Consulting LLC and guest host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio.

Cooney joined John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, on day two of the KubeCon CloudNativeCon EU event in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss the challenges facing the cloud-native community as it experiences exponential, global growth. (* Disclosure below.)

Limit distros for long-term sustainability

Limiting the number of Kubernetes distributions will help maintain a stronger, more unified community and avoid the complexity problems experienced during the rapid growth of another open source platform, OpenStack, according to Cooney. “[Companies] should map to one of the key distros … out there already, [choosing] the one that they feel is right … for their users and for their company long term,” she advised.

While open-source foundations like the Cloud Native Computing Foundation foster collaborative innovation that provide an environment for the incubation of technologies, such as container orchestration, consulting companies such as Spark Labs help cloud-native start-ups create long-term business plans. Monetization of these ideas is the next step, according to Cooney.

“I’m super excited about being able to take those companies and figure out how to actually get their product to market …  figuring out how to build out their teams … how to monetize,” she said.

Cloud-native technology is at a key moment in time, according to Furrier, with the Kubernetes de-facto standard establishing a new methodology within the industry. “We’re seeing formations of new kinds of community engagement digitally. … There’s now going to be a potentially exponential growth and acceleration around the combination of community with this modern commercialization on digital,” he stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of KubeCon CloudNativeCon EU. (* Disclosure: Some segments are sponsored by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation to support editorial coverage. Neither the CNCF nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Cloud Native Computing Foundation