The Accidental Platform Team

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026

Session Date: March 25, 2026 — London

The Scale

• Dev environment: 2000+ pods across 32 servers
• 3–4 data centers
• 5G network functions deployed on Kubernetes
• UPF pods managed by 5G network engineers, not traditional devs

The Network Wizard

A custom tool for 5G network deployment:

1. IP assignments — automated allocation
2. Collect IPs in IPAM
3. Populate inventory — automated tracking
4. Create change requests — compliance integration
5. Integrate, test, observe — using Landslide

Uses intention-based design backed by Kubernetes operators.

The "Accidental" Problem

"Accidentally built a platform and it cannot be shipped and forgotten about."

• Teams don't have time to check your platform
• Start with brave early adopters who want to test
• Use ambassadors to spread adoption

Making It Accessible

• Users asked: "How can I see which changes will be applied?"
• Built a CRD Wizard UI for intuitive interaction
• Headlamp provides a Kubernetes UI (supports Flux)
• Users who didn't know or want to know about K8s needed a UI layer

User Engagement Strategy

1. Invest in training and knowledge sharing
2. Start with design / feedback sessions
3. Create focused communication channels
4. Conduct regular check-ins to surface problems

Key Takeaways

1. Platforms emerge accidentally — plan for the operational burden
2. Start with early adopters, not the reluctant majority
3. Provide a UI layer for users who don't know K8s
4. Headlamp is a lightweight K8s UI that supports GitOps
5. Regular user engagement is non-negotiable for adoption