Beyond the Booth: KubeCon Insights & the “Platform as a Product” Report

#KubeCon + #Cloudnativecon is always full of energy, conversations, and insights, but the real value often emerges after the booth has been packed away.

Beyond the Booth brings together Syntasso’s Abby Bangser, Daniel Bryant, and Cat Morris for a candid, practical, and forward-looking discussion about what they learned at KubeCon 2025 and how those insights connect to the newly released Platform as a Product report.

Join Abby, Daniel, and Cat for insights and conversations beyond the booth.

#Syntasso #KubeConrecap #PlatformAsAReport

Transcript

1. Beyond the Booth: KubeCon Insights & the “Platform as a Product” Report Daniel Bryant Product Marketing Abby Bangser Principal Engineer Cat Morris Staff Product Manager
2. Welcome • Housekeeping ◦ Q&A and comments are welcome! • Run of show ◦ Introductions ◦ The big trends ◦ “Platform as a Product” ◦ Behind the booth
3. Introductions Abby Bangser Principal Engineer Daniel Bryant, Product Marketing Cat Morris Staff Product Manager
4. We came, we saw, we learned Lots of great conversations Talks, panels, parties, and more This is our (opinionated) take!
5. Platform as a Product: How to design, operate, and evolve internal developer platforms: We also launched our new O’Reilly report! syntasso.io/platform-as-a-product-oreilly-report
6. The Big Trends: KubeCon Atlanta 2025
7. Kubernetes + AI is now “real”, not just hype, but production Maturity, ecosystem shifting from hype to depth, clarity, and real engineering Observability, operational tooling & reliability, elevated by AI and complexity The Big Trends The journey has just begun: there is much to learn (and remember!)
8. Platform as a Product: What Engineers Need to Know
9. Platform as a Product
10. Platform as a Product
12. HOT TREND ALERT FROM THE BOOTH Do any of the following apply to you? • You are a sociotechnical bridge • You need to understand everything about operational functions in your business • You offer services to teams who offer services to teams who offer services to teams…
13. HOT TREND ALERT FROM THE BOOTH Do any of the following apply to you? • You are a sociotechnical bridge • You need to understand everything about operational functions in your business • You offer services to teams who offer services to teams who offer services to teams… THIS IS A SCALABILITY PROBLEM!
14. HOT TREND ALERT FROM THE BOOTH YOU NEED Multiplayer Mode!
15. HOT TREND ALERT FROM THE BOOTH
16. Download the report RIGHT NOW!
17. Behind the Booth: Engineering Realities & Practitioner Insights
18. Platforms are diverse, multi-player is necessary
19. Platforms add value when they build what is unique to your organisation and common to your teams . That depends on easy access to what isn't unique to your organisation: infrastructure- and policy-as-Code. Migrations to the as-a-Service mindset is painful and not providing support across existing solutions. Platform Engineering without fundamentals is painful
20. Observability of, and for, the platform but at what cost Deterministic systems were hard enough. With AI observability becomes both harder, more expensive, and more necessary. Don't accept dependencies that leave you in the dark. OTel is the only clear winner. Invest in data collection, and organisation. Focus on the use cases not pure scale.
21. Wrapping up 🎉
22. • Uptake of AI is driving the adoption of platform engineering • Building Platforms as a Product is a good thing • At scale, “multiplayer mode” is essential for platforms • Observe all the things (apps, platforms, infra, etc) • Did we mention we’ve created a new O’Reilly report? ;-) Conclusion
23. Happy holidays! Our gift to you: Our O’Reilly Platform as a Product report Thank you! www.syntasso.io speakerdeck.com/syntasso