KubeCon North America 2025 is right around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited. Over 10,000 developers, IT professionals, and C-level leaders will converge in Atlanta to learn and discuss innovations in and the future of cloud native computing. If you’re planning (or still considering) to be there, here are five things to look out for.
The Themes: Innovation, Scaling and Security
If you want to know what big questions an industry is wrestling with at any given time, look at the topics of the keynotes at major industry events. Look across the approximately two dozen keynotes at this year’s KubeCon, and you’ll three big themes emerge, all of which are relevant to everyone in this space.
The first is innovation. No surprise here as innovation is at the core of what every enterprise is trying to achieve. The innovation-related keynotes this year focus on a range of topics from technology (how Kubernetes tools and frameworks are evolving to unlock new capabilities) to execution (how can we simplify and accelerate) to outcomes (what visionary objectives are possible).
The second big theme is scaling; in fact, a half-dozen keynotes are specifically about different aspects of scaling. This indicates that scaling is a big challenge right now, which if you’re currently working in the cloud computing trenches, probably isn’t a surprise to you. It isn’t to us here at Aviatrix either and it’s a big part of why we launched Aviatrix Kubernetes Firewall earlier this year—to automate multicloud security and unify protection across Kubernetes and VM workloads at scale.
The third theme is an oldie but a goodie: security. This is an evergreen topic because it’s critical and because it’s a moving target, which means that cybersecurity work is never done. This year’s keynotes tackle security from all the angles: implementation, regulation, and risk. Again, this is an area that Aviatrix invests a lot of time and development in so we can deliver solutions that close the security gaps that inevitably open up in the pursuit of innovation and scaling.
The Tracks: Functional, Topical, and Visionary
The primary reason people take time away from their busy day-to-day responsibilities to go to an event like KubeCon is to learn, so that when they get back, they can do their jobs even better. The KubeCon tracks—the broader categories that the individual sessions fall under—provide insight into what cloud professionals want and need to learn. There are three categories of tracks.
The Functional tracks offer sessions that are relevant to the different areas of specialization: Application Development, Platform Engineering, Operations + Performance, Security, and there’s even a track for the Cloud Native Novice. (One session in particular we’re looking forward to in the Security track is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Hacking 3 Cloud Native AI Services With 1 Vulnerability, delivered by our friends at Wiz.)
The Topical tracks tackle different key aspects of cloud computing, including AI + ML, Connectivity, Data Processing + Storage, and Observability. Of course, you could argue that Security fits here as well and you wouldn’t be wrong.
And there are three tracks that could be categorized as visionary. The Emerging + Advanced track offers a look into the technology and concepts of the future, the Cloud Native Experience track covers topics related to building cloud community and businesses, and the Maintainer Track offers direct updates from CNCF’s project maintainers.
The Vendors: The Products and Services That Have Your Back
More than 250 vendors are sponsoring and exhibiting at KubeCon this year. These are companies who are investing in delivering products and services to help cloud professionals, and the companies they work for, deliver secure, scalable cloud native innovations. The exhibit floor is the physical embodiment of the ecosystem that’s shaping the next generation of cloud native computing. Aviatrix is proud to be a Gold sponsor to do our part to help practitioners, platform engineers, and decision-makers build security and connectivity into every layer of their architecture.
Aviatrix: See—and Participate In—Putting the Themes Into Practice
We hope you’ll make a point of visiting the Aviatrix booth (#1352) while you’re at the event. Aviatrix helps enterprises secure and manage cloud networking in a way that’s built for how modern businesses operate—across multiple clouds, multiple compute types, and increasingly, AI-driven workloads. In our booth, we’re showcasing how we enable enterprises to put all three of the key themes (innovation, scaling, and security) into practice with Aviatrix Cloud Native Security Fabric (CNSF), which brings together visibility, control, and protection across cloud environments and workloads, all in a unified platform.
Stop by our booth to chat with a cloud networking security expert and to see a live demo of how the solution unifies networking and security across VMs, containers, and AI workloads. You’ll see real-time visualization of cloud traffic flows, attack surface analytics, and micro-segmentation policies being applied dynamically. You can even test your own cloud security posture against live scenarios by participating in a short, interactive challenge we’re running to show how built-in security actually works when it’s done right.
The Buzz: What’s On YOUR Mind?
When talking about major industry events like KubeCon, we tend to focus on all the opportunities for attendees to learn from the expert speakers, panelists, and vendors. But the truth is that the flow of insights is multi-directional. Organizers always tout the networking opportunities their events offer, and that is true, but it’s more than that. Bringing so many practitioners together under one roof creates a unique opportunity to hear about what’s really going on in their day-to-day trenches. What questions, concerns, and imperatives will we hear echoed again and again by attendees over the course of the four days? That can be just as informative as any keynote or tutorial.
We hope to see you there! And if you can’t make it but would still like to see Aviatrix CNSF for yourself, we can do that: schedule a demo.
