On June 7, 2025, Bengaluru played host to one of the most exciting events of the year for anyone passionate about Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies—Kubernetes Community Days Bengaluru 2025 (KCD Bengaluru 2025). Held at the Radisson Blu, Outer Ring Road, the event brought together a diverse mix of developers, DevOps engineers, cloud architects, and open-source contributors. It was a day filled with insightful sessions, inspiring keynotes, and the opportunity to connect with the vibrant Kubernetes community.
For me and my colleagues from TnS India, attending KCD Bengaluru 2025 was an unforgettable experience. We were thrilled to immerse ourselves in a day dedicated to learning more about Kubernetes best practices, tools, innovations, and the challenges being tackled by the global cloud-native community. The event not only helped us deepen our understanding of Kubernetes but also gave us the chance to share Mercari’s journey and connect with professionals who are just as excited about cloud-native technology as we are.
Kickoff With Inspiring Keynotes
The event opened with a warm welcome from Humble Devassy Chirammal, Principal Engineer at VMware and a well-known Kubernetes maintainer. His emphasis on building a collaborative and innovative Kubernetes community set the tone for what turned out to be a truly engaging and thoughtful day.
The keynote sessions were some of my favorite moments of the event. Each one highlighted the progress Kubernetes has made so far while giving a glimpse into its future. A few keynotes that stood out:
● Daniel Krook from CNCF shared a deep dive into the evolution of Kubernetes in 10 Years of CNCF and Cloud Native’s Next Decade. His stories about challenges and growth within the community were insightful and relatable.
● Ashish Hanwadikar from Kloudfuse brought observability front and center in his talk, From Prompt to Pod: Observability Across the AI Stack. For us as a team working on observability at Mercari, this session sparked discussions about how we can apply those principles in our own projects.
Tracks That Delivered Something for Everyone
A standout feature of KCD Bengaluru 2025 was its three curated tracks: AI & Security, Platform/Community, and Cloud Native Ecosystem. Each session was designed to provide actionable insights, whether you were new to Kubernetes or an experienced professional
looking to fine-tune your knowledge. As a team, we split up to attend sessions across all three tracks and gained some fantastic takeaways.
Track 1: AI & Security
This track focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, security, and Kubernetes. For anyone interested in cutting-edge AI workloads and keeping them secure, this track was spot-on.
Key Sessions That Stood Out:
1. “MLOps Beyond Jupyter: Building Scalable & Reproducible ML Pipelines on Kubernetes” by Raghu Reddy and Esakki Raj E ○ This session highlighted how to go beyond experimentation tools like Jupyter notebooks and create production-grade, scalable pipelines on Kubernetes. For teams handling AI workflows at scale, the tips and tools shared were incredibly helpful.
2. “Observability in LLMs and AI Workloads” by Neel Shah and Runcy Oommen ○ This talk was particularly relevant to our team’s focus on observability (O11y). It explored how tools like OpenTelemetry can be used for monitoring and improving the performance of AI workloads, including large language models (LLMs).
3. “Breaking and Securing Kubernetes: Real-World Attack Vectors and Defense Tactics” by Manoj Deshmukh ○ This session offered eye-opening examples of how Kubernetes clusters can be attacked and, more importantly, how to protect them. As Kubernetes becomes more widely used, this topic feels critical for all organizations.
Key Takeaway:
AI and security are becoming increasingly intertwined, and Kubernetes is at the core of this shift. Observability is crucial to managing and securing Kubernetes workloads effectively, especially as AI systems grow in complexity. Since at Mercari we are also focusing on AI systems, it was an insightful track for us.
Track 2: Platform/Community
The Platform/Community track focused on scaling Kubernetes platforms and the importance of collaboration within open-source communities.
Key Sessions That Stood Out:
1. “Scaling OpenTelemetry Across Workloads” by Srinivas Venkata Bevara and Ashish Aggarwal
○ This practical session showed how OpenTelemetry can handle a variety of workloads, from Kubernetes clusters to legacy systems, helping teams centralize their observability efforts.
2. “Open Source for Strong Teams” by Sreeram Venkitesh and Aparna Prabhu ○ This talk highlighted the enormous value of contributing to open-source projects, not just as a way to improve products, but also as a method for building strong, passionate engineering teams.
Key Takeaway:
Community is everything. Whether it’s through open-source projects, sharing knowledge, or collaboration across teams, Kubernetes thrives because of the people who believe in its power.
Track 3: Cloud Native Ecosystem
This track was perfect for exploring tools, CNCF projects, and new ways of working in the cloud-native space. Whether you were just starting out or refining your Kubernetes expertise, this track had something for everyone.
Key Sessions That Stood Out:
1. “Hidden Gems in the CNCF Landscape” by Ram Iyengar
○ Ram’s talk introduced lesser-known CNCF projects like Flux and Linkerd and demonstrated how they can simplify Kubernetes operations. His practical examples made these tools feel approachable, even for beginners.
2. “Kubernetes Failure Stories” by Chinmay Naik ○ This candid and humorous session highlighted the potential pitfalls and challenges of working with Kubernetes. One key takeaway was the critical need for proper monitoring and observability to quickly detect and resolve issues. Chinmay shared an unforgettable story about the consequences of not restricting production access, where a single mistake led to the accidental deletion of an entire namespace, a lesson on the importance of setting clear access controls within a cluster.
Key Takeaway:
The Cloud Native Ecosystem track not only introduced me to new tools but also offered practical advice for making Kubernetes deployments more efficient and reliable.
Community Networking and Showcasing Mercari
Beyond the amazing sessions, one of the best parts of KCD Bengaluru 2025 was the chance to meet and network with fellow attendees. It was inspiring to connect with professionals from startups, large enterprises, and open-source communities alike, including experts like Rishabh Yadav (Dynatrace) and Lavanya Namburi (Amadeus).
As a team, we were also proud to showcase Mercari’s approach to observability. The shared passion for Kubernetes was infectious, and it was clear that many of us were tackling similar challenges in different ways.
Of course, no tech event is complete without swag, and KCD Bengaluru 2025 didn’t disappoint. Special thanks to sponsors like GitLab, Dynatrace, and OpenShift for the goodies we brought back!
Final Reflections
Leaving the conference, I felt energized and inspired—not just by the incredible speakers and sessions, but also by the sense of community that KCD Bengaluru fostered. Whether it was the keynote talks, the technical workshops, or the coffee-break conversations, it was clear that Kubernetes isn’t just a tool; it’s a movement shaped by people who want to make technology better.
For us, KCD Bengaluru 2025 wasn’t just a learning experience, it was a chance to connect, share, and grow with the Kubernetes community. We’re excited to bring these insights into our upcoming projects and continue contributing to this ever-evolving ecosystem.
Here’s to more innovation, collaboration, and growth in the cloud-native world, until next year!
“Kubernetes Community Days Bengaluru 2025 wasn’t just an event—it was a gathering of minds and ambitions. The energy in the room, the stories shared about challenges overcome, and the excitement for what lies ahead solidified one thing for me: Kubernetes is more than a tool; it’s a cornerstone for how we build the future of technology. And this community is leading that charge.”
— Sejal