Keynotes — Day 3

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026

Date: March 26, 2026 — London

Kubernetes as an Operating System

Jago Macleod

  • Kubernetes has evolved into an operating system — resource management and operations
  • DRA (Dynamic Resource Allocation) enables fine-grained hardware scheduling
  • Kubernetes 1.36 — workload-aware scheduler
  • Decoupling hardware from software is the next frontier

Open-RL

  • Simple fine-tuning workflow for reinforcement learning on Kubernetes
  • Makes RL training accessible on standard K8s infrastructure
  • Part of the trend toward AI-native Kubernetes

Agents as First-Class Users

Shift from Developer Experience to Agent Experience

  • AI agents are becoming the primary consumers of platform APIs
  • This changes API design, documentation, and onboarding
  • Agents need machine-readable, well-structured interfaces

Bottlenecks and Shadow IT

  • Systems continuously move bottlenecks — fix one, find another
  • Shadow IT redefined: teams adopting AI tools without platform oversight
  • Vertical vs. horizontal scaling — applies to team capability too

The Platform as Multiplayer Game

  • Enable producers as customers
  • Create an internal multiplayer platform
  • Good consumer citizens follow 12-factor app principles
  • 8 factors highlighted as minimum viable adherence
  • CNCF Platform Engineering Technical Community Group governs standards

Key Takeaways

  1. Kubernetes is now an operating system, not just an orchestrator
  2. K8s 1.36 workload-aware scheduler changes resource management
  3. Agent Experience will supplement Developer Experience
  4. Shadow IT now means unmanaged AI tool adoption
  5. 12-factor apps create good platform citizens

Questions?

KubeCon EU 2026 — London