Ayrat Khayretdinov, Cloud Architect at CloudOps sat down with Kaitlyn Barnard, Cloud Native Computing Foundation(CNCF), to talk about cloud native, trends in the industry, and being an Ambassador. Below is their interview. You can also view the video.

Kaitlyn: Good. So we’re gonna chat a little bit about the Ambassador program, some of your community work. So, you can start off just by introducing yourself.

Ayrat: All right. My name is Ayrat Khayretidnov. People in the community know and as Archie. I’m based in CanadaI work for a company called CloudOps. we help developers and SLE teams to own their destiny in the cloud. So our idea is use as much as possible cloud native applications and CNCF projects, so it’s a big part of our daily job.

Kaitlyn: Awesome. So what was the first cloud native project that you participated in?

Ayrat: Maybe four years ago, I was very actively working with another open source community called OpenStack. So my first engagement with Kubernetes project was with a sig OpenStack, where we help to integrate Kubernetes with OpenStack basically, to using their load balancers and storages from OpenStack. That’s how it’s actually started.

Ayrat: And then I’ve noticed that I’m probably the only representative from Canada. So I went back home and started to present at docker meetups, OpenStack meetups. And that actually lead me to start the Kubernetes meetup in Montreal. And it was very successful. So I decided to run those meetups across multiple cities. I pretty much know all the developers. I know all the companies involved, So it’s a lot of interest in the area with regards to Kubernetes.

Kaitlyn: Great, that’s awesome. So what do you see is the next big thing in the cloud native or container ecosystem?

Ayrat: Going forward in the future, I think server less with Kubernetes. We want a really simplified application developer’s workflow in Kubernetes. So projects like K-native is going to be definitely very, very interesting. And we see the whole industry, different companies adopting it and starting to contribute.

Ayrat: In CNCF we have a trail map, where we have different areas of interest. And we have something called a CACD part. Right now it’s like a missing. There’s no project there. So there is another interesting open source project started by Netflix called Spinnaker. I’m really hoping it’s going to be closer to Cloud Native Foundation, yeah.

Kaitlyn: That’ll be awesome. So we talked a little bit about some of your work with the Meetups, and the community and all of that. Why did you want to be part of the Ambassador program?

Ayrat: So pretty much in my case, it was like a call for me. I’ve been doing this, but I didn’t know that this Ambassador program exist. So, somebody contacted me and saying, “Hey, you’re doing great job. Why don’t you apply for Ambassador?” So yeah, why not? Pretty much the people who were Ambassadors are all my friends, So I’m so excited to be part of this team.

Kaitlyn: Yeah, I think that’s one of my favorite things about the Ambassador program, is there’s so many individuals in the community doing this work already. I think it’s great to bring them together and recognize that.

Ayrat: Absolutely. And we have not only Meetup organized, we have people who really made a lot of investment in the community itself. So it’s both sides of the wall. We’re helping each other and supporting. So it’s great.

Kaitlyn: Definitely. We’ve talked a lot about work. Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

Ayrat: One fact is that I’m wearing the Kubernetes hoodie or Ambassador hoodie pretty much everywhere. Recently I was taking flight. The guys in the security border, they’re like, “Are you using Kubernetes?” I was like “Wow, how you guys know?” Guy was like, “We heard about the Meetup” and everything. So, just seeing how many people are familiar with Kubernetes, it’s just fantastic.

Kaitlyn: Very cool. Well thank you so much for joining me today.

Ayrat: Absolutely. Thank you very much.