KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2024 is just around the corner, and we’ve got a ton of exciting Linkerd content lined up! With 12 talks and plenty of opportunities to meet the team, this year’s event is not to be missed. Here’s your guide to all things Linkerd at KubeCon, including where to find us, the talks you won’t want to miss, and more.

Meet the Linkerd Team in Person

Come say hi to the Linkerd maintainers at our kiosk in the Project Pavilion in the sponsor expo hall. This is your chance to chat with the minds behind your favorite service mesh and dive deep into how Linkerd is transforming cloud native environments. 

Linkerd & SUSE Rancher Collaboration at KubeCon

Buoyant and SUSE have teamed up to tackle edge deployments while keeping things simple and secure. If this sounds interesting, swing by the SUSE Rancher booth on Wednesday from 2:00 to 2:45 pm. We'll showcase this and other exciting joint solutions our teams have been collaborating on! 

CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group

I’m proud to be one of the founding members of the CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group (DHHWG). While I’m not deaf, I’ve been closely involved with this community from the beginning. In just one year, the group has made tremendous strides, and at this KubeCon, we’ll have 6 talks by deaf speakers (including two Linkerd talks!). Plus, there will be community activities like an Open Space Discussion and a Sign Language Crash Course.

Stop by the CNCF Project Pavilion in the mornings to meet the team at the DHHWG kiosk (right next to Linkerd), and keep an eye out for interpreters at the keynotes. This and more are just some of the things I've been collaborating on with working group members and the Linux Foundation. A lot of this progress wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Buoyant, which has been an incredible ally of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group since day one.

Talks to Add to Your Schedule

We’ve got an exciting lineup of Linkerd and Buoyant talks this year. Here are the must-attend sessions:

Tuesday

• 12:20 pm — Adding Cluster-Agnostic Services, project lighting talk by Phil Henderson, Customer Success Engineer
• 4:55 pm — Startups with Open Source Projects—Can They Succeed in the CNCF? Panel discussion with William Morgan, CEO, Buoyant

Wednesday

• 11:15 am — The State of Cloud Native Business Value in 2024, Panel discussion with Catherine Paganini, Head of Marketing, Buoyant
• 12:10 pm — AI and ML: Let’s Talk About the Boring (yet Critical!) Operational Side by community members Rob Koch, Principal, Slalom Build and Milad Vafaeifard, Lead Software Engineer, Epam
• 12:10 pm — Emissary-Ingress: Version 4 and the Road Ahead by Flynn, Technical Evangelist, Buoyant 
• 4:30 pm — Linkerd Update: Ingress, Egress, IPv6, Enhanced Multicluster, Rust, and More by William Morgan, CEO, Buoyant
• 4:30 pm — Museum of Weird Bugs: Our Favorites from 8 Years of Service Mesh Debugging by Tom Dean, Field Engineer and Phil Henderson, Customer Success Engineer, Buoyant

Thursday

• 11:55 am — Multi-Zone Clusters Inside and Out by Tom Dean, Field Engineer, Buoyant
• 2:30 pm — Tutorial: Live with Gateway API V1.2 with Flynn, Technical Evangelist, Buoyant  
• 3:25 pm — TLS and MTLS: Introduction to Modern Security by community members Sandeep Kanabar, Lead Software Engineer, Gen and Andrew Davis, Cybersecurity Specialist ‍
• 5:25 pm — One Gateway API to Rule Them All (and in the Cluster Configure Them) by Flynn, Technical Evangelist, Buoyant 

Friday

• 11:00 am — Open Source 2.0: The Maintainers' Perspective, panel discussion with William Morgan, CEO, Buoyant

Interested in Speaking at KubeCon?

Have a Linkerd success story you’d love to share at the next KubeCon? We’d love to help you take the stage! Reach out to me on the Linkerd Slack (@Catherine Paganini), and I'll connect you to friendly Linkerd team members who'll guide you through the process of sharing your experience with the wider community.

Can't Attend KubeCon This Year?

No worries! You can always connect with us via the Linkerd Slack. Whether you’re looking for advice or just want to say hi, our community is always active and happy to help.