Kubernetes Community Days UK 2025
by
Kubernetes Community Days UK 2025 – My Experience in Edinburgh
Dates: October 21–22, 2025
Location: Edinburgh
Theme: Cloud Native, Open Source, and Community
Event Website: kcd.uk
In October 2025, I had the chance to attend Kubernetes Community Days (KCD) UK 2025 in Edinburgh, and honestly—it was a fantastic experience. Two full days of learning, hands-on labs, and great conversations with people who genuinely care about cloud-native technologies and open source.
From deep technical sessions to casual chats over coffee, the event had a really welcoming and community-driven vibe.
Day 1: Hands-on Learning & Networking
The event started with registration, breakfast, and a warm welcome.
Day one kicked off with an inspiring keynote by Liz Rice, who spoke about balancing open-source collaboration with real business needs. It was a great way to set the tone for the event. I did arrive a bit late, but once I got in, I jumped straight into the technical sessions.
Highlights from Day 1
Hands-on Workshop: Multi-Cluster Kubernetes with Cilium
One of the biggest highlights for me was a hands-on workshop by Isovalent on Cilium Cluster Mesh. We dug into how eBPF enables secure communication across multiple Kubernetes clusters and how global network policies can be applied cleanly.
In this workshop, we learned how:
- Multiple Kubernetes clusters can securely connect to each other
- Services can communicate across clusters
- Global network policies can be applied
All of this was powered by eBPF. It was practical, well-structured, and very easy to follow—and yes, I proudly earned a completion badge at the end!
Networking and Sponsor Booths
During breaks, I spent time talking with sponsors like Tigera (Calico), Isovalent (Cilium), SUSE, Komodor, Cloudsmith, Coder, Syntasso, and Cluster. Their booths were busy with live demos, free swag, and honest discussions about real Kubernetes problems teams face every day.
Afternoon Talks and Lightning Sessions
The afternoon was packed with interesting sessions. Some notable lightning talks:
- The Immutable Lightness of an Edge Platform – about making edge systems more reliable
- Kubernetes at the Edge – Live Demo – showing AI detection on a Raspberry Pi using KubeEdge
- Scaling Kubernetes with Karpenter – a smarter approach to autoscaling
- Extreme Microservices with GraphQL Federation – a bold and creative take on microservices
The day ended with fun lightning talks on topics like OpenTelemetry, Kubernetes for beginners, and AI-powered observability. We wrapped up with food and drinks sponsored by Minimus and Chainguard, which was perfect for relaxed networking.
Day 2: Observability, AI, and Virtual Clusters
Day 2 started strong with three keynotes:
- Many Cooks, One Platform – about teamwork and ownership in platform engineering
- A Talk About Talks – encouraging more people to speak and share knowledge
- Keeping AI Honest with OpenTelemetry – a live demo showing how observability helps debug AI systems
Key Sessions
Keeping AI Honest with OpenTelemetry
One standout keynote showed how OpenTelemetry can be used to debug and monitor AI assistants. As AI becomes more embedded in our daily workflows, this session felt especially relevant and practical.
vCluster Workshop
In the afternoon, I joined a 90-minute workshop by Cluster on building internal developer platforms using vCluster. Using Killercoda labs, we simulated multiple teams sharing Kubernetes and learned how virtual clusters help keep environments isolated and easier to manage.
Kubernetes and the Blackboard Pattern
Later, I attended a creative session that compared Kubernetes to the blackboard pattern. It was an interesting way to understand how Kubernetes coordinates many components safely and efficiently.
Smart Autoscaling
Another great talk explored performance-aware autoscaling—going beyond basic CPU metrics to make smarter scaling decisions. It really challenged the way I think about resource management in Kubernetes.
The event ended with a panel discussion featuring keynote speakers, reflecting on where Kubernetes is today and where it’s heading next.
Final Reflections
KCD UK 2025 wasn’t just another tech conference—it truly felt like a celebration of open source and community. The hands-on workshops with Cilium and vCluster were incredibly valuable, and the conversations with fellow attendees were just as inspiring.
I’m heading back to my day-to-day work with new skills, fresh ideas, and a renewed appreciation for the cloud-native community.
Already looking forward to KCD UK 2026—see you there! 🚀
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