Open Standards: Anchoring Extensibility for Cloud-Native Tooling

Open Standards are pivotal in the path towards the extensibility of cloud-native tooling.

• Kubernetes has been the centerpiece of the Cloud Native landscape, elevating a pluggable system that contributed to the diversification of the entire ecosystem.
• To accommodate the expanding space of cloud-native tooling, it was necessary to introduce standardization and guidelines to simplify the interoperability and consumption of these tools.
• Open standards and manifestos within the cloud-native landscape, including OCI, OpenTelemetry, Open Service Mesh, Open Application Model, and many more, are pivotal in the path towards the extensibility of cloud-native tooling.
• Open standards have had a huge impact on the vendors and users in the community, allowing for innovation, extensibility, and interoperability.

Kubernetes is known for its ability to define how to run containerized workloads, its portability and adaptability, and its approach towards declarative configuration and automation. This has been extremely beneficial for Kubernetes, with over 83% of companies using it within a production system. Open standards and interfaces have allowed for the emergence of contrasting solutions for the same problem, creating an ecosystem that embraces innovation and extensibility. This has been possible because the open standards and interfaces are the central engine for innovation that anchors extensibility.

Within its 7 years of existence, Kubernetes has been the centerpiece of the Cloud Native landscape, elevating a pluggable system that contributed to the diversification of the entire ecosystem. As a result, multiple areas have developed in the industry, galvanizing solutions for components such as runtime, tracing, metrics, service mesh, and many more. However, to accommodate the expanding space of cloud-native tooling, it was necessary to introduce standardization and guidelines to simplify the interoperability and consumption of these tools. This talk will focus on the evolution of open standards and manifestos within the cloud-native landscape, including OCI, OpenTelemetry, Open Service Mesh, Open Application Model, and many more. Attendees will acquire an understanding of why open standards are pivotal in the path towards the extensibility of cloud-native tooling.