KCD (Kubernetes Community Days) Helsinki brought together cloud-native enthusiasts, developers, and industry leaders for a sold-out event packed with insights, collaboration, and inspiration. Ericsson Software Technology Finland was proud to be part of the organizing committee, with myself contributing alongside fellow organizers to help make the event a success—selling out early April!
Ericsson Software Technology punched well above our weight at KCD Helsinki, making a visible and memorable impact that far exceeding their size. From organizing and speaking to driving discussions and the sessions, Ericsson's presence was felt throughout the day. Both attendees and CNCF leaders took note of the team's active contributions and deep commitment to the cloud-native community—reinforcing Ericsson’s role as not just a participant, but a true enabler of open innovation.
The day featured impactful talks and lightning sessions, each offering its own unique flavor. Still, a few major themes stood out across the board:
1. Kubernetes Maturity and Ecosystem Evolution
Speakers explored how Kubernetes has grown from a cutting-edge innovation into a mature, stable cornerstone of cloud-native infrastructure. This evolution is reshaping how organizations build, scale, and secure their platforms—with security being a recurring theme throughout the day.
2. Security from All Angles
Security was a major focus, with sessions examining the complexities of securing cloud-native environments. Topics ranged from application-level design to workload protection and access control. The key message: security is a must be built-in, not an afterthought.
3. AI’s Transformational Impact
AI’s role in the cloud-native world was another hot topic. Sessions discussed both the potential and the responsibility: how today’s design decisions impact the sustainability of tomorrow’s solutions. AI is moving from hype to reality, fundamentally changing how development and operations are executed—and prompting deep reflection on long-term sustainability.
🔥 Session Highlights: Topics That Stood Out
Here are a few personal favorites from the day’s rich lineup:
Secure by Design in Gaming Platforms – Metacore’s Approach
Metacore shared how they embed security into internal developer platforms used to support games played by millions. The session provided practical, “from-the-trenches” lessons on balancing speed with security, using guardrails, policy, and smart platform design.
High-scale, high-speed gaming environments with vocal user bases demand built-in security. It must be integrated into both infrastructure and game development processes.
OpenTelemetry & Perses: Breaking Free from Vendor Lock-In
Observability is essential—but often tied to proprietary platforms. This session highlighted how open standards like OpenTelemetry and Perses empower organizations with flexibility and cost control. Perses, a new project, aims to standardize dashboards and reduce dependency on closed solutions—a must-see for anyone building scalable observability stacks.
We Go Together: Navigating Open Source Contribution
Open source can feel overwhelming to newcomers, but this talk broke it down with empathy and clarity. It covered both perspectives: how new contributors can navigate norms, pitfalls, and joys—and how maintainers can create "good first issues" and actively onboard new participants.
“If you want to go far, go together.” This session beautifully echoed the morning “Kubernetes Community: Accidental Brilliance or Careful Design?”-keynote’s message of inclusive, collaborative development.
Kubernetes Workload Security: Real-World Lessons
Enento Group offered actionable insights on securing Kubernetes workloads using open-source tools. Real-world examples covered threat detection, misconfiguration analysis, and how to integrate DevSecOps into your day-to-day practices.
Building Bare Metal Kubernetes at Scale
Nokia’s NESC internal cloud platform showcased how to scale Kubernetes on bare metal using a 100% open-source stack. From BGP-based L3 networking to white-box switches with SONiC and Talos OS, this talk was infrastructure engineering at its finest.
Bare metal is hot. The room was packed—so much so that not everyone could attend. The demand underscored growing interest in infrastructure freedom and flexibility.
⚡ Lightning Talks That Packed a Punch
These short, sharp sessions delivered big ideas in small packages:
- Confidential Containers: An introduction to securing cloud-native apps through confidential computing and getting involved with the CNCF Confidential Containers project.
- Formally Verified Access Control: A compelling, open-source approach to mathematically verified access control—an often overlooked but critical component of system security.
🎤 Keynote Magic
Kubernetes Community: Accidental Brilliance or Careful Design?
Sarah Novotny’s keynote traced Kubernetes’ journey from a Google project to one of the most vibrant communities in tech. Through stories of governance, distributed leadership, and inclusive design, she showed how both intentional architecture and happy accidents shaped this powerful movement.
All seven original founders had different visions for cloud computing—but containers were the unifying factor. Over time, the community evolved through experimentation, embracing what worked and discarding what didn’t. True community can’t be vendor-driven—it’s a shared, collaborative mind.
Our 13 Minutes to the Moon: AI and Sustainable Cloud-Native Futures
This powerful session took us to the edge of AI innovation—and sustainability. It posed a critical question: How do we balance high-performance infrastructure with responsible resource use?
Today’s infrastructure often suffers from underutilized resources, which is not just a business inefficiency but a carbon footprint concern. Smarter, dynamic resource allocation is needed—and platform engineering plays a key role in optimizing both cost and environmental impact.
CNCF at 10: Cloud Native’s Next Decade
This session reflected on the CNCF’s growth into a global powerhouse, with nearly 300,000 contributors in over 190 countries—making it the second-fastest-moving open-source community after the Linux kernel.
As we move into the AI era, how do we carry forward the values of open collaboration, inclusivity, and democratization that built the ecosystem in the first place?
👏 Wrapping Up
KCD Helsinki wasn’t just a conference—it was a celebration. A celebration of collaboration, of open-source innovation, and of the cloud-native community’s power to shape the future.
Whether you came for the cutting-edge tech, the practical lessons, or the inspiring people, one thing is clear: Kubernetes may have matured—but the adventure continues and continues to attract new members.
Until the next KCD Finland event, check out the Finland CNCF meetups for more great sessions and community discussions!