CiliumCon began at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 in Amsterdam, and this will be our sixth time hosting it. Like Cilium itself, the event has grown significantly since its inception, expanding from its original focus to now include Hubble and Tetragon too. There might even be some nods to scaling networking for the needs of AI.
What do you want attendees to get out of this event?
CiliumCon is where the Cilium and eBPF community comes together to share real-world experiences and learn from each other. It’s a space to meet the Github handles you have been working with or following the whole year and who knows, you might even walk away with an eBee.
Platform teams will walk away with the knowledge on everything from implementing Cilium Mesh in production environments to advanced DNS policy management to multi-cluster security strategies and running IPv6 only Kubernetes clusters. Seasoned contributors will learn if it’s actually possible to parse DNS in the kernel and everyone will help build the buzz around Cilium.
What is new and different this year?
This year, we are celebrating almost 10 years of Cilium! As the project has matured, we’re able to feature the experience of a decade of production implementations. Attendees will hear how CiliumEndpointSlice helped Microsoft unlock higher scale at AKS, SeatGeek’s journey from zero to production in 90 days with Cilium Mesh, ESnet’s pioneering IPv6-first Kubernetes deployment, and Google’s multi-cluster network security strategies with Cilium, Tetragon, and Hubble. We’re also diving deep into kernel-level DNS parsing improvements and will learn how to solve a real-world bug in Cilium’s BPF-based SNAT and its LRU eviction policy.
What will the day look like?
The CIlium and eBPF community will come together for a half-day on Monday, November 10th, from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM EST. The day will kick off with opening remarks from Program Committee Co-Chairs Bill Mulligan and Hemanth Malla, followed by six technical sessions, and a keynote from Liz Rice which will cover the broader community direction and vision. To close, we’ll have a practical lightning talk about fixing a Cilium bug, and closing remarks sharing how to engage with Cilium throughout the rest of KubeCon.
Should I do any homework first?
Familiarity with Kubernetes networking concepts and container orchestration will help you get the most from the technical sessions. If you’re new to eBPF technology, we recommend reviewing the fundamentals of kernel programming and network policies. Some great resources are the eBPF documentary for the full backstory on why this tech is a game-changer, and the children’s guide to eBPF, Buzzing Across Space, for a fun introduction. Understanding multi-cluster deployments and service mesh concepts will also enhance your experience but shouldn’t be a barrier. If you want to get hands on before the event, be sure to check out the Cilium labs.
Meet your community!
Cilium is nearly ten years old, and this year’s CiliumCon represents a milestone in the maturity of eBPF-powered infrastructure. The speakers are implementing Cilium in some of the most demanding production environments imaginable from 60,000 node clusters to IPv6 only backbone networks. CiliumCon is where you go to hear how the cloud native industry solves the most complex networking and security challenges at scale.
A note from co-chair Bill Mulligan:
Apart from the chance to eat some great Southern food, I can’t wait to get back out on the Atlanta Beltline. As an avid cyclist, I love to see examples of supporting urban mobility that don’t involve cars. The Atlanta Beltline has become a green band interconnecting the city, just like Cilium interconnections Kubernetes clusters and beyond.