In this episode, we interviewed Lachlan Evenson, a product manager at Microsoft and seasoned cloud native community member who is excited by the opportunity to welcome newcomers at KubeCon. With a passion for helping people start their cloud-native journeys, Lachlan encourages attendees to reach out to him if they’re looking for guidance. This year, he’s particularly excited about the latest developments in observability, CI/CD, and supply chain security, especially projects like Argo CD and Copacetic.
As for KubeCon events, Lachlan highly recommends attending the maintainer tracks, where contributors can connect directly with maintainers and learn how to engage with projects. He anticipates more discussion on how Kubernetes is foundational to the AI ecosystem, emphasizing the relationship between Kubernetes and AI workloads.
This episode is sponsored by OVHcloud.
Bart Farrell (00:01.336)
For those of you that have ever submitted a CFP to KubeCon, there’s a guide written by the wonderful person I have with me, which has been very beneficial. But, Lachy, there are some people out there who maybe don’t know you. Can you explain really quickly who you are and what you do?
Lachlan Evenson (00:08.795)
Yes, hi everybody. My name is Lachy Evenson. I’m a product manager at Microsoft where I get to work on upstream cloud native projects like Kubernetes, Istio, and many more.
Bart Farrell (00:25.25)
Very good. Now you have been in this ecosystem for quite some time. You’re, you know, a Kubernetes OG. What’s your area of focus in the CNCF world, in the CNCF ecosystem?
Lachlan Evenson (00:37.786)
Why I go to KubeCon is to meet that person who’s just entering the community. I love creating a welcoming and open space for them to ask questions and get answers. So I really think we need to double down. Every time I go to KubeCon, there are so many people I meet, and they say, “This is my first KubeCon. I came here to learn about cloud-native Kubernetes. Can you help me?” And I love that question. I love being able to answer it, and I love getting that energy. Even though I’ve been in the community for 10 years, that’s the same energy I got when I was welcomed into the community back then. So I feel obliged to give that energy back to newcomers. If you see me at the event, I really love to be asked that question. I want to help you get on your journey and be successful in cloud native. That’s my passion. That’s what I love about this.
Bart Farrell (01:23.202)
Really can’t ask for more. On the more technical side, which three projects are you currently most interested in when it comes to the CNCF landscape?
Lachlan Evenson (01:32.078)
I think there is a renaissance in observability happening. So anything on the observability front, CI/CD, Argo, Argo CD, the Argo landscape—it’s a really big space solving a lot of great problems. For observability, any project in that area. Argo on the CI/CD front. And finally, supply chain security—I really love a project called Copacetic, which is about patching your containers. So if you’re interested in security, that’s a great project in the CNCF as well.
Bart Farrell (02:02.702)
Fantastic. And for this particular KubeCon, you already mentioned the importance of welcoming newcomers. Are there any talks that you’re planning on attending or other KubeCon plans you’d like to share?
Lachlan Evenson (02:12.846)
I always love the keynotes. They set the tone and where the community’s going, the challenges ahead of us. And I love panels—hearing from folks in the industry, doers, people that are building and facing challenges. I encourage you, if you get out of bed, grab a coffee, get to the keynotes early. I always love the energy on stage. Folks like Joe Sandoval, who will be up on stage—I love learning from Joe. His panels always do a great job bringing out the most topical things the community’s trying to address. I leave the keynotes really inspired. I also love the maintainer tracks, where you can meet the maintainers and hear about what they’re building, the challenges they face. If you’re interested in getting into the open-source ecosystem, go to a maintainer track. Learn what they’re building, what’s on their roadmap. They’ll invite you in. Be part of that. Be vulnerable and say, “Hey, I’m here to help.” Step up to those maintainers—they’d love to welcome you into the community.
Bart Farrell (03:23.63)
Love it. We talked to George Castro and some others about their plans for the project Pavilion. You know, these people are at the booths for their projects, speaking to people. Precisely what you just said—you can go up, ask questions, and figure out which projects might be best for you to contribute to, based on your skillset, background, and interests. One last question: since we heard a lot about AI at the last KubeCon, some of the keynotes and panels—I’m about to speak to Joe Sandoval about his KubeCon plans as well—what do you expect to be hearing about AI this time? Six months forward, can we see stronger examples of this being applied in Kubernetes engineering? What do you expect to hear about AI this time?
Lachlan Evenson (04:08.973)
I think there needs to be a lot more drill-down on how Kubernetes and platforms we’ve built in the cloud-native ecosystem are actually powering the AI revolution. I’m seeing that more and more in the industry. The folks building those platforms need to talk about how they’re using them and what they need because we have a massive community willing to take on these challenges. For example, I’ve worked on OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform, which is powered by Kubernetes. Perplexity uses Kubernetes too. Kubernetes is kind of the bedrock—a platform to build platforms, and it’s along for the AI revolution. We need more people on stage to talk about how they’re leveraging Kubernetes and the gaps they’re seeing. The truth is, Kubernetes and many cloud-native projects are actually powering the AI revolution today. I want to be challenged and for the community to ask, “What do we need to build next to continue powering the AI revolution?” With AI, we have distributed infrastructure and scheduling—how do we make it work better for AI workloads? They’re just another piece of software and another workload. That’s what I think we need to dig into.
Bart Farrell (05:27.938)
I like that—it removes the fear or doubts, making it less alien. In reality, we can treat it simply and find practical applications. Kubernetes can benefit from AI, and AI uses Kubernetes, so it’s mutually beneficial. Don’t be afraid of the conversation—KubeCon is definitely the place to have it. Well, Lachy, thank you for your time today. Looking forward to seeing you on the ground in Salt Lake City. Great practical advice for everyone out there, whether attending in person or online. If you’re online, there are many ways to participate, so don’t feel left out. The Slack channel will be very active throughout the event. See you soon. Take care.
Lachlan Evenson (06:09.159)
Thank you very much. Bye-bye. See you there.
Bart Farrell (06:11.736)
Cheers.