Cloud native is not just for hyperscalers: Chris Aniszczyk

As the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) approaches its 10th anniversary, Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of Cloud & Infrastructure at The Linux Foundation, reflects on the foundation’s explosive growth, from Kubernetes and 20 member companies to over 750 global contributors. In this exclusive interview, Aniszczyk discusses the evolution of cloud-native technologies, India’s rising influence in open source, and what to expect at the upcoming KubeCon India. He also sheds light on emerging AI conformance efforts, the Kuberstronaut certification program, and the growing significance of platform engineering in modern software delivery. 

Excerpts:

What is your role at CNCF and Linux Foundation, and how has the journey been? And what new projects are you working on?

I am Chris Aniszczyk, CTO and co-founder of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and now CTO of Cloud & Infrastructure at The Linux Foundation, where I have been a part of the organisation since its inception. We’re approaching the 10th anniversary of CNCF this year, and I’ve been in this role for that entire period. We started with Kubernetes as our first project and about 20 member companies. Today, we have over 750 member companies and around 230 projects. We’re nearing 300,000 contributors worldwide, making CNCF one of the largest and fastest‑growing open‑source foundations.

In terms of current focus, I’ve been working on the global challenge of supporting the community across various regions. We now host five KubeCons: U.S., Europe, China, Japan, and India, each aligned with contribution rates. I’m also heavily engaged in launching a new AI workload conformance program, now in beta. The idea is to replicate our earlier Kubernetes conformance approach, ensuring portability and compatibility, but this time targeted at AI workloads on Kubernetes. Many AI services, including ChatGPT and others, run on Kubernetes and employ projects like OpenTelemetry, Envoy, and more.

Finally, I’m preparing for KubeCon India, which is expected to sell out with around 4,000 attendees.

How was the feedback from last year’s KubeCon in Delhi, and how has it influenced this year’s program? What new improvements are you bringing?

Last year’s event in Delhi was well-received; people were thrilled we brought it to India. One common suggestion was to host in other cities, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune, so this year we moved the venue to Hyderabad. We also expanded the event space and sponsor halls; the number of sponsors has tripled, and we plan to accommodate an additional thousand attendees.

The program content is shaped by community-elected program chairs who work with a committee of over 100 contributors to curate talk selections. This year, Atul and Bhavani from InfraCloud and Zscaler served as program chairs. The sessions fall into four core themes: platform engineering (including Backstage and developer efficiency tools), AI, observability, and security.

We’re also introducing end‑user keynotes, including a standout session from Chitale, a dairy company showcasing how they’re leveraging Kubernetes and CNCF tools to modernise their operations from ‘cow to glass’, showing that cloud-native is not just for hyperscalers but applicable across every industry.

How will KubeCon help foster collaboration between startups and enterprises and elevate Indian innovation globally?

Our events bring global companies together. We already have collaborative CNCF projects and new initiatives like the AI conformance program that Indian companies can contribute to. We have nearly 28,000 members in cloud-native community groups across 37 Indian cities, the most active globally. We also offer education materials, including a Cloud Native Platform Engineering Associate certification, which helps developers and organisations adopt platform engineering best practices. This local activity helps Indian developers engage deeply with global open-source efforts.

Your role now includes Linux Foundation oversight for cloud and infrastructure. How will this leadership shift impact cloud-native and infrastructure-related open-source projects?

We recently integrated the Open Infrastructure Foundation into the Linux Foundation, bringing in OpenStack and its ecosystem. This expanded our cloud and infrastructure unit to better coordinate across CNCF, OpenSearch, the Continuous Delivery Foundation, and more. We’re beginning to organise cross-community events, for example, bringing OpenSearch and Observability projects together, merging OpenTelemetry with OpenSearch to share standards and compatibility. This formalises natural developer collaboration into structured collaboration.

What is the Kuberstronaut program, and how does it help bridge the skills gap?

Kuberstronaut promotes cloud-native excellence and education. Candidates must pass five demanding Kubernetes certifications covering development, management, and security. India currently has 180 Kuberstronauts, the highest globally. These certified individuals are publicly listed by country, and companies are encouraged to hire them. The program also helps educators teach people how to contribute to CNCF projects, helping India move from being consumers to contributors and open-source leaders. Soon, we will partner with Indian organisations to offer certifications in rupees and local languages, making it more accessible.

Platform engineering is a growing trend. How are CNCF and the Linux Foundation supporting it and helping organisations scale?

Platform engineering evolved out of DevOps to centralise tools, guardrails, and automation for efficient development. CNCF’s Backstage project pioneered open-source platform engineering. We also support tools like Argo and Flux for GitOps automation. These tools improve deployment consistency and developer operational efficiency. Backstage serves as a portal integrating them. Increasingly, companies of all sizes are building platform engineering teams to standardise development workflows and onboarding. CNCF is the place many organisations look to for guidance on these practices.

Beyond Kubernetes, which emerging technologies do you believe will shape next‑generation cloud‑native infrastructure?

Kubernetes remains the foundational standard for running applications at scale, including AI workloads. Besides that, OpenTelemetry, CNCF's second-largest project, is defining observability norms across tools like Datadog and Splunk. It’s evolving rapidly to support AI/ML workloads. Prometheus is popular for metrics, while Argo provides declarative automation. Backstage continues enabling platform engineering. Other significant projects include Ciliu, a man eBPF-based networking/security CNI, and OpenFeature, standardising feature flag workflows similar to what OpenTelemetry did for observability. These, along with other CNCF projects, are driving innovation in infrastructure.

As generative AI becomes commonplace, how can developers be trained to build secure and scalable systems for large AI workloads?

CNCF already offers tools and projects to observe, manage, and secure workloads at scale, originally focused on container workloads. These technologies are now evolving to support AI workloads. Projects like Hami, Jozu, and ModelPack enable containerization of AI models so existing CNCF observability and security tools can work out of the box. Developers should get involved in the CNCF ecosystem, train in cloud-native practices, and adopt modern tools, which provide the foundation for scalable, secure AI infrastructure.