The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has experienced remarkable growth since its inception, welcoming its first project, Kubernetes, on March 10, 2016. By 2025, the CNCF proudly supports over 200 active projects, generating thousands of meetings annually. This rapid expansion, while a testament to the thriving cloud native ecosystem, also presented a unique set of operational challenges, particularly in managing project calendars.
Historically, CNCF staff members manually managed a central Google Calendar for all projects, handling requests for meeting additions, changes, and removals through a high-volume service desk ticketing system. For anyone who has struggled to keep even a couple of personal calendars synchronized, the complexity of managing over 200 project calendars on behalf of diverse communities is easily imaginable. This labor-intensive process, while functional, was not scalable and often led to bottlenecks for both projects and staff.
A new era of automation and autonomy
The CNCF Projects team is continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance the project experience through automation and increased autonomy. Recognizing the need for a more efficient and empowering calendar solution, the team initiated a significant transition in June 2025. Projects are now being migrated to the new CNCF calendar system, a robust platform backed by the Linux Foundation’s LFX infrastructure. This new system introduces self-managed calendars for every project, empowering maintainers with direct control over their scheduling.
The foundation of this new calendar system is the Linux Foundation Project Control Center (PCC). PCC serves as the single source of truth for project lifecycle information, dynamically pulling essential details such as project logos, calendar links, and GitHub links, and displaying them directly on the new calendar interface.
Streamlined access and enhanced features
Project maintainers can request access to their dedicated calendar via the CNCF Service Desk. Once access is granted, they can independently manage their meeting schedules, eliminating the need for intermediary staff involvement. This self-service model significantly reduces administrative overhead and provides projects with greater agility and responsiveness in their planning.
To utilize the PCC features, project maintainers must first have an LFID, which can be easily set up via https://openprofile.dev/.
A highly anticipated feature, introduced in September 2025, further enhances the project experience: the automatic upload of project meetings to the project’s designated YouTube channel. It’s important to note that these videos do not auto-publish, providing projects with full control. Maintainers gain access to YouTube Studio, where they can trim and edit their meeting recordings, add custom thumbnails, select appropriate playlists, and make any other desired changes before publishing.
Furthermore, creating meetings within the PCC system does not require a pre-existing Zoom link. A unique Zoom link is automatically generated for each meeting series. Meetings can be designated as public or private, can be recorded and transcribed, and offer the option of Zoom AI meeting summaries for projects wishing to utilize this feature for capturing notes and key takeaways.
Project maintainers are encouraged to view the short video tutorial to quickly learn more about setting up and managing meetings within PCC.
Transition and sunset plan
To ensure a smooth transition, the CNCF will sunset the old Google calendar system by December 1, 2025. This timeline provides ample opportunity for all projects to migrate to the new PCC-backed self-service calendar system, ensuring continuity and seamless management of their scheduled events. Projects can reach out to the CNCF Projects Team via the CNCF Service Desk or in the project pavilion at Kubecon to help to transition to their new calendar.