Priyanka Sharma, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, teams up with Joseph Sandoval, Principal Product Manager at Adobe, to discuss the exciting intersection of platform engineering and AI. They highlight how AI will transform platform operations, aiming for better efficiency and user-centered designs. The conversation covers the upcoming KubeCon event, the role of open-source initiatives like CNOE, and essential reference architectures for guiding developers. Explore the growing maturity of platform engineering amidst changing technological landscapes.
The podcast emphasizes the significant role of platform engineering in integrating AI workloads and enhancing infrastructure management within cloud-native technologies.
Collaboration across communities is crucial for developing user-centric solutions that improve experiences and standardize practices in platform engineering.
Deep dives
Integration of AI and Infrastructure
The discussion highlights the increasing intersection of AI with infrastructure, particularly following the insights gained from KubeCon Paris. It emphasizes the need for engineers to bridge data integration into infrastructure software to improve AI workload management. The emergence of projects like Ray signals a shift towards understanding AI as part of a broader data narrative, where effective data pipeline management enhances AI engineering efforts. As infrastructure teams adapt to support AI workloads, collaboration across communities becomes vital for delivering enhanced features and products.
KubeCon Themes and the Role of Platform Engineering
KubeCon's structure now includes thematic days, with the first day focusing on platform engineering and AI platform development. This theme underscores the responsibility of platform engineering teams in creating the infrastructure necessary for AI applications. Notable keynote speakers from prominent companies in the AI space will discuss leveraging their expertise in engineering and distributed systems. The focus aims to equip attendees with insights and practices for integrating AI within their platforms, signifying a pivotal shift in the cloud native ecosystem.
User-Centric Development in the Cloud Native Community
A strong emphasis is placed on improving user experiences through the development of user-centric, scalable platform solutions within the cloud native community. As platform engineering evolves, the community is encouraged to share best practices and standardize terminology, further refining collaboration efforts. Initiatives such as reference architectures aim to provide clear guidance for end users, ensuring they can navigate the cloud-native landscape effectively. The ongoing development of user groups and advisory boards ensures that end user needs are prioritized and addressed in project roadmaps.
Platform engineering will be a key focus at KubeCon this year, with a special emphasis on AI platforms. Priyanka Sharma, executive director of the Linux Foundation, highlighted the convergence of platform engineering and AI during an interview on The New Stack Makers with Adobe’s Joseph Sandoval. KubeCon will feature talks from experts like Chen Goldberg of CoreWeave and Aparna Sinha of CapitalOne, showcasing how AI workloads will transform platform operations.
Sandoval emphasized the growing maturity of platform engineering over the past two to three years, now centered on addressing user needs. He also discussed Adobe's collaboration on CNOE, an open-source initiative for internal developer platforms. The intersection of platform engineering, Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, and AI raises questions about scaling infrastructure management with AI, potentially improving efficiency and reducing toil for roles like SRE and DevOps. Sharma noted that reference architectures, long requested by the CNCF community, will be highlighted at the event, guiding users without dictating solutions.