Ambassadors

I’m a Cloud Developer Advocate with Google. I co-host for the Kubernetes Podcast by Google and the Cloud Careers Podcast.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Learn from the community. Contribute to the Open Source and Cloud Native world and help inspire others to do the same

Adam is part of the Open-Source Program Office (OSPO) at DT where he works as a DevRel focusing on observability and security. SCUBA diving is his passion. Outside work you can find him on, in or under the sea.

DevOps & Cloud Engineer, Public Speaker, Tech Mentor, Lead Organizer CNCG Jaipur, OpenSource & Community Contributor, AWS Community Builder, AWS Community Leader, 1 x (AWS, GCP, Azure), 6 x RedHat, CKA, KCNA certified.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It’s been more than three years, I am being part of CNCF programs actively contributing via blogs, and public speaking on different open source DevOps/Cloud technologies at virtual and in-person events, I want to expand my learning and contribution with a wide area of peoples and uplift them with like-minded folks I can grow at the same time can share & help with my ideas to build better community bonding & culture.

Been working in software since 1998 and from the early days was drawn to performance engineering, observability and more recently on DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineering. I am an active contributor to the CNCF project Keptn, I am a podcaster, I create YouTube tutorials and occasionally blog as well! Besides IT I am passionate about salsa dancing 🙂

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: The success of any community depends on the people that actively drive community activities (bringing people together, educating, making them feel comfortable ..) and the members of the community that then want to join, grow and eventually contribute back to that community. I am excited to get the chance to help grow the community with my goal to inspire many others to do the same

Angel Ramirez is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur with a strong background in software product development, cloud-native technologies, and Kubernetes Kubestronaut. Angel is a CNCF and TODO OSPO Ambassador, known for his exceptional public speaking skills, effectively communicating intricate technical ideas engagingly and understandably. His dynamic approach seamlessly integrates technology with business strategy, helping organizations achieve robust, scalable solutions while promoting a culture of ongoing learning and community engagement.

Arsh is a Developer Experience Engineer at Okteto. He has also been awarded the Kubernetes Contributor Award previously. Prior to joining Okteto, he worked at VMware. He has also been a contributor to the CNCF projects cert-manager and Kyverno. Arsh has written blogs and spoken about different topics in the cloud ecosystem. Recordings of some of his previous talks can be found at: https://arshsharma.com/speaking/

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I owe a lot to open source and the CNCF open source community in particular. I’m excited to be an ambassador to be able to give back to the community and help others get started on their journey of contributing! As someone who has firsthand witnessed the benefits in personal and professional life thanks to the community, I want others to be able to share these joys as well.

Brad is originally from New Zealand now working in Australia as the Head of Platform Engineering, he has been involved in the DevOps space for a long time now and serves as a board member of the Continuous Delivery Foundation. Brad is a maintainer of the Keptn project and works on the Kubernetes Release team. And is involved in mentoring in GSoC projects. His favorite projects to work on from the CNCF are GitOps, Security and Observability projects. He is helping to organize the KCD Australia and also runs a meetup in Australia.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m excited to be an ambassador to further help and mentor other folks coming into the cloud native space and guide them in the right direction. I’m also excited because I can continue working on the outreach of the CNCF and show organizations how they can contribute and help grow the projects and unlock innovation.

For 25 years, I’ve built and operated distributed systems and helped over a million people learn dev and ops topics. I’m also a Docker Captain and the creator of the wildly popular Docker & Kubernetes Mastery series on Udemy. I provide DevOps-style consulting, workshops, a popular DevOps Discord server, a container-focused YouTube channel, and a podcast. I basically spend my days helping people and giving high fives.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I think DevOps culture and container tech have changed the IT Pro and Developer world forever! For over eight years, I’ve been a megaphone for container tech and love teaching cloud native DevOps topics. The CNCF community has been a great experience for me both as a teacher and a learner, and I want to make sure it’s great for many years to come.

Carlos Santana is a Senior Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS leading Container solutions in the Worldwide Application Modernization GTM team. He is experienced in distributed application architecture, emerging technologies, open source, serverless, gitops, devops. He is a contributor to CNCF projects such as Kubernetes and Knative. Find him on Twitter @csantanapr or his Kubernetes Bookclub https://santana.dev

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m excited to work with the CNCF, and be able to help the CNCF to improve on how it works and get perceive by the community of contributors and consumer of cloud native tech. I’m excited to meet new folks and be able to collaborate on projects on enablement of projects such as Kubernetes.

Chad is a Senior Platform Engineer at Civo, and author of the book “Acing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam”. Chad has been an instructor for over six years on platforms such as A Cloud Guru (now Pluralsight) and INE. Through KubeSkills, he helps people find fun and interactive ways to learn Kubernetes, Linux, and containers.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I really enjoy helping people get involved in open source software. I have realized the power of community, in lifting others up and succeeding together, and I love to share it with others. I believe it is my duty in life to share what I’ve learned in order to make intellectual progress as a human race.

Cristher Castro, co-founder and COO of Cuemby, is a visionary leader and operational dynamo who drives community building in the Latam tech scene. Over the last 3 years, she advocated for the adoption of open-source technologies within the Spanish-speaking community, creating and supporting tech meetups and events in the region. She co-created, along with her team, the first Kubernetes Community Days in Colombia. This event paved the way for the expansion of Cloud Native Groups throughout the region. Cristher’s foresight and operational expertise have been fundamental to the success of both Cuemby and the Cloud Native Latam Group. Recognizing the region’s need for in-depth knowledge of cloud-native applications, Cristher championed the LFS250 (Linux Foundation Course) and administered the KCNA certifications donated by CNCF to the region. These two initiatives heightened awareness of cloud-native technologies and certifications, fortifying local proficiency in open-source solutions. She continues to promote and advocate for the recognition of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in the region, addressing both business and community aspects. Cristher’s leadership and operational prowess exemplify her unwavering commitment to fostering a thriving Latam tech community. https://community.cncf.io/cloud-native-latin-america/ https://community.cncf.io/cloud-native-medellin/ https://www.cncf.io/reports/kcd-colombia-2023/ https://www.cuemby.com/about-us https://www.linkedin.com/company/fundaci%C3%B3n-hispana-de-cloud-native/?viewAsMember=true https://community.cncf.io/cloud-native-colombia/ https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kcd-colombia/?viewAsMember=truehttps://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kcd-colombia

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Becoming a CNCF ambassador empowers me to further my dedication to community growth in the LATAM region. I deeply believe that the region’s success hinges on the symbiotic collaboration of professionals, students, and companies. It’s this harmony that forms the core of my mission: to cultivate a thriving community ecosystem centered around open-source and cloud-native technologies. Through this role, I am positioned to amplify awareness about these technologies and the transformative opportunities they introduce. My operational and logistics expertise is set to facilitate more meetups and events, thus kindling the formation of new communities. Collaborating with fellow leaders and ambassadors provides a unique platform to unite our efforts, ensuring we collectively advance our shared vision.

Daniel Oh is Java Champion and Senior Principal Developer Advocate at Red Hat. He works to evangelize building cloud-native microservices and serverless functions with cloud-native runtimes to developers. He also continues to contribute to various open-source cloud projects and ecosystems as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) ambassador for accelerating DevOps adoption in enterprises. Daniel also speaks at technical seminars, workshops, and meetups to elaborate on new emerging technologies for enterprise developers, SREs, platform engineers, and DevOps teams.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It will give me more opportunities to meet more technical folks who want to adopt/learn new cloud-native technologies and tools. Also, the ambassador makes me a more proactive person to evangelize non-tech people in terms of how/why they move forward to the cloud.

A co-founder of Palark GmbH. An Open Source and Linux enthusiast since 2001. An active member of Kubernetes SIG Docs and CNCF Glossary. Dmitry builds the community for werf, a CNCF Sandbox project for CI/CD. He also shares Kubernetes and cloud native-related news and tools in the Kubernative Telegram channel (https://t.me/kubernative).

I’m a product management-converted developer with a long-standing interest in data and data management technologies and an enthusiast for cloud native computing. I containerized my first database in 2016 and explored the possibilities of cloud native technologies. I’m particularly keen on container runtimes, CI/CD, streaming & messaging and orchestration. You can follow my experiments and discoveries at https://geraldonit.com

Ileriayo is a Certified Kubernetes Developer, Administrator, and Security Specialist (CKAD, CKA, CKS) with a passion for people and technology. Co-organizer of the CNCF Lagos community group and KCD Nigeria committed to the growth of Africa. A teacher who takes pleasure in democratizing complex technical concepts. He is the creator of Get Going With Kubernetes, which consists of book reading and a series of workshops to help people learn Kubernetes.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: The adoption of Cloud Native in Africa has been quite low compared to other regions. Becoming an ambassador provides me the opportunity to champion the adoption, development, and growth of Cloud Native on a bigger scale in Africa.

Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/ileriayo

Itay Shakury is VP Open Source at Aqua Security, where he leads engineering and strategy of open source, cloud native, security solutions. Itay has some 20 years of professional experience in various software development, architecture and product management roles. Itay had initiated several local technical communities and events, including the successful CNCF Tel Aviv meetup group.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m honored to be recognized as a CNCF Ambassador, and join this amazing team of worldwide experts. To me, the CNCF is an intersection between two passions of mine – technology and community, which I have been pursuing since early in my career. I’m excited to continue to collaborate with the various technical working groups, events, projects and initiatives that the CNCF ecosystem continuously generates.

Jessica runs the Gothenburg chapter for CNCF communities and is an active part in Cloud Native Nordics. She’s building platforms to improve developer experience and passionate about empowering teams to build great products!

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m excited to continue creating an open community for sharing and learning around cloud native technologies and to get a chance to meet other amazing people doing similar work all around the world.

I’m Jim Angel. I love solving problems and working with incredible people! I’m primarily involved with upstream Kubernetes (SIG-Release and SIG-Docs). Currently working on restarting our local Austin meetup and a Texas KCD. You can follow my latest projects at jimangel.io

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It’s awesome to get to know so many great people and work with leading technology that’s responsible for changing multiple industries. The community that keeps Kubernetes open and welcome is a special thing, and I hope to maintain such standards myself. I also enjoy helping connect the folks using open source tooling with the resources they need to be successful, and being an ambassador keeps me connected.

Jimmy Song(宋净超) is a developer advocate at Tetrate and founder of Cloud Native Community(China). He is an outstanding blogger and author of cloud native technical books. You can know him better from his blog jimmysong.io

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I used to be the second Chinese to join the CNCF Ambassador program and then the CNCF Ambassador changed the rules of the game and I thought I should reapply.

Jintao is a Sr. SE at Kong Inc. Kubernetes Ingress-NGINX maintainer. Microsoft MVP. Public speaker and author. He was speaking at multiple conferences, including KCD, IstioCon, DockerCon, and more. He enjoys sharing technology and has been actively involved in open-source projects for a long time.

Jon Zeolla is the founder of Zenable, where they are revolutionizing corporate governance by integrating cloud-native security and compliance with artificial intelligence. Previously he co-founded Seiso where he received the 2021 Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award and currently serves as strategic advisor, guiding key business decisions and company growth.

He is also a CNCF Ambassador, SANS Instructor for SEC540: Cloud Security and DevSecOps Automation, and an active member of CNCF TAG Security.

I have been working around software development for more than 6 years. Involving development, infrastructure architecture, monitoring, etc. Currently, I work as SRE at SCRM Lidl International Hub. Also, I have been awarded with Microsoft MVP for 4 years in a row and nowadays, I invest the majority of my free time contributing to KEDA. I’m proud about my puppies and my wife, and I use the rest of the time with them.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: The program provides a platform for ambassadors to connect and collaborate with other cloud-native enthusiasts and promote the adoption of cloud-native practices. By becoming a CNCF ambassador, one can contribute to the open-source community and help shape the future of cloud-native computing.

Julia Furst Morgado is a Global Technologist – Office of the CTO at Veeam Software. With over five years of experience in the industry, her focus is on simplifying Cloud Native technologies by sharing her expertise and experiences. She is also committed to empowering communities as the organizer of the NY Code & Coffee Meetup and KubeHuddle conference, and by being an AWS Community Builder, a Women Techmakers Ambassador and a Girl Code Ambassador.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I strongly believe in raising awareness about how people can help the CNCF community beyond just coding, and encourage more individuals to get involved in whatever capacity they can. I am excited to produce content, promote cloud native technologies, participate in major events, and connect with global communities.

Juliano is a passionate Software Engineer/Developer Advocate with extensive experience in cloud-related technologies. He is specialized in OpenTelemetry and is always working with Kubernetes, Helm, Containers, Jenkins, and other related tools. As one of the maintainers of the CNCF project OpenTelemetry Demo, Juliano has helped to create a distributed system that demonstrates the implementation of OpenTelemetry in a near real-world environment. With a strong belief in the power of community, Juliano co-founded the Cloud Native Linz meetup. He actively participates in the tech community and is always willing to share his knowledge and insights with others. When not working, Juliano likes to spend his time with the family traveling around Austria and sightseeing new places.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I strongly believe in the power of the community and how it can help everyone grow, not just professionally, but as a whole. I’m extremely excited about being able to help growing the CNCF community and raising it awareness wherever I go. I love learning and sharing what I learn. The atmosphere and environment of openness created by CNCF is something that I take with me in every interaction I have. I’m super excited and thankful in becoming a CNCF Ambassador.

Karen Chu is the Head of Community at Fermyon Technologies. Having participated in the cloud native community since 2015, she is a CNCF Ambassador, Helm community manager/maintainer, emeritus Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee member, meet-up organizer, and conference organizer. She has also worked on The Illustrated Children’s Guide to Kubernetes book series. When she’s not connecting dots in the community, you can find her pursuing photography, cooking, and sipping on chai lattes.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Having help build this community since 2015, I’m fascinated by how far the ecosystem has come and how much further it can go. I’m extremely excited to see CNCF participate in new spaces and so with my continued work as a CNCF Ambassador, I look forward to helping bridge the gap between the cloud native and Webassembly communities.

Kohei Ota is a Senior Field Engineer at Apple. He is a CNCF Ambassador and contributes to Kubernetes SIG Docs as the Japanese localization owner in the CNCF communities. He also organizes Docker Meetup Tokyo and CloudNative Days Tokyo; some of the biggest “container/cloud native” communities and conferences in Japan.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’ve been involved with local cloud native community based in Japan. Unfortunately not many folks from Japan have tightened relationship with international community. I’m excited to be part of organizers of both sides and would love to help local experts become part of the international community!

Kristina Devochko is a platform engineer, tech content creator, speaker and tech community contributor based in Norway. She focuses on all things cloud native and green tech. Kristina is an owner of kristhecodingunicorn.com tech blog, a CNCF Ambassador, Microsoft Azure MVP, Green Software Champion, CNCF TAG Environmental Sustainability chair, host of Platform & Cloud Café podcast, co-organizer of multiple meetup groups and mentor. In her free time Kristina enjoys doing CTF challenges, reading and cuddling with her four cats.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I love giving back to the tech community and I hope that my actions and contributions can inspire others to create software with sustainability, security and cloud native principles in mind. Another important goal for me is to contribute to even stronger diversity, equality and inclusion in the cloud native space by creating a non-judgemental, open, safe and welcoming space for everyone. By being an ambassador I can focus even more on doing just that! I’m also very excited to meet all the fantastic ambassadors and members of the cloud native community and collaborate on making a positive impact in the CNCF space together 🙂

I’m Michel Murabito, but everyone calls me Mich. I’m a Developer Advocate at Mia-Platform with over 18 years of experience in software development. Throughout my career, I’ve held various roles in tech companies, enhancing my skills and contributing to numerous projects that have shaped my expertise. My areas of interest include Sustainability, Platform Engineering and Cloud Native technologies in general, which have guided my career choices and contributions I actively contribute to the CNCF, participating in the Sustainability TAG and the Platform WG of the APP Delivery TAG, and I organize KCD Italy, a key event for the Kubernetes community in Italy. I founded DevelopersLife, an Italian community of 800 members dedicated to supporting developers, both new and experienced, by providing them with the resources and guidance needed to maximize their professional opportunities in the development sector.

Mohammad Reza is a Senior Cloud-Native Engineer at Elastisys with multiple years of experience in DevOps and Software Engineering. He actively contributes to the KUbernetes as part of the Release Team and has published multiple research papers and his PhD thesis on cloud-native technologies, particularly service meshes such as Istio and Cilium. He is writing about Cloud-Native technologies on his LinkedIn page and his personal blog. You can also find his previous talks in various venues on his Youtube channel.

Nabarun is a Staff Software Engineer at VMware by Broadcom, a maintainer of the Kubernetes project, a Kubernetes SIG Contributor Experience chair and an emeritus member of the Kubernetes Steering Committee member. He is a Release Manager for Kubernetes and has been the Kubernetes 1.21 Release Team Lead. Nabarun has been an active member of 8 releases since 2019. He is an emeritus member of the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee. Nabarun continuously mentors newcomers in the community through various means. He has been featured multiple times in the Times of India and other publications for his work in the Kubernetes and Python communities. Nabarun has spoken at multiple KubeCon events in the past, as well as other CloudNative-focused conferences like Kubernetes Community Days.

Oleg is a developer tools hacker, community builder and DevRel consultant. He’s passionate open source software, open ecosystems and open hardware advocate. Oleg is a core maintainer Jenkins project where he writes code, mentors contributors and organizes community events. He is a CNCF and CDF ambassador, Testcontainers Champion and a former Jenkins Board member and CDF TOC Chair. Oleg has a PhD degree in electronics design and volunteers in the Free and Open Source Silicon Foundation, and in a number of Ukrainian support and Russian anti-war organizations.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: CNCF is a driver behind many open source initiatives and industry-wide projects in the areas of observability, software delivery and virtualization. For years I’ve been a user and contributor of many projects, and also advocated for CNCF projects and best practices in my talks. It is an honor to join the CNCF Ambassadors. There are many great folks there, and I am happy to join the team. Looking forward to participating more!

Sessionize profile: https://sessionize.com/onenashev/

Professional Nerd, SRE and Content Creator. Love advocating for Open-Source and container technologies. Runs a YouTube channel where he shares and teaches the technologies and good practices he uses every day as an SRE at Bitso.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I love teaching and helping people to become better engineers. I love everything open source and what it stands for, knowledge must be shared and everyone should have the opportunity to become better at their jobs.

I am an active member of the Cloud Native Taiwan User Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/cloudnative.tw) at Taiwan with extensive experience and skills. I am passionate about sharing my knowledge and experiences, irregularly organizing Meetup events (https://community.cncf.io/kcd-taiwan/) to provide professional expertise on Kubernetes and CNCF technologies. In addition, I also run my own blog, where I share practical information and experiences related to Kubernetes and container technologies. Please feel free to visit my blog at https://blog.pichuang.com.tw

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m excited to be an ambassador because I believe in the program’s value and the chance to connect with like-minded individuals. It’s rewarding to represent the program’s values and contribute to the community’s awareness and adoption of the technology.

Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/pichuang

I am a self-proclaimed “cloud automator”, and I work at Sopra Steria based out of Oslo, Norway. I have been granted the title of Microsoft MVP for my work with Azure, and I have been an active contributor in the CNCF for which I earned the title Cloud Native Ambassador. I initiated Cloud Native Norway, a non-profit that works to build up and enable Cloud Native adoption and development in Norway. I also co-founded the Azure Cloud Native User Group, and founded the Norwegian PowerShell User Group. In the CNCF, I have been active for years in TAG App Delivery, and currently serves as co-chair for the TAG, maintainer on the OpenGitOps project, and as co-chair of the Platforms Working Group.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: For many years, the CNCF has continued to impress me. The way that the foundation has supported the community and the projects is truly admirable. Even though I have other honorary titles, the CNCF Ambassador title is one that I value very much. While I don’t do community work for the titles, I am happy for the recognition. I have big plans for my work in the CNCF, and I look forward to seeing how the ambassador program will help me achieve more for the community.

Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/roberth-strand

Shimon co-organizes the CNCF chapter in Tel Aviv, In addition, he is also the co-organizer of KCD Israel. He also creates tutorial videos about cloud-native technology and Kubernetes.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am excited to be a CNCF ambassador as I believe in the CNCF philosophy of being a vendor-agnostic and open-source foundation. I wanted to become a CNCF Ambassador to continue performing community activities involving the CNCF and open-source projects and host meetups and events like the KCD.

Thomas Vitale is a software engineer with a focus on building cloud native solutions, currently working at Systematic in Denmark. He is the author of the “Cloud Native Spring in Action” book and plays an active role in the cloud native ecosystem as a CNCF Ambassador, Co-Chair of the CNCF Application Development Working Group, Oracle ACE Pro, and Testcontainers Community Champion.

A strong advocate of open source collaboration, Thomas contributes to various projects in the Java and cloud-native space, including Spring AI, Testcontainers, Carvel, Dapr, and Buildpacks. He is also passionate about sharing his expertise with the community through talks, workshops, and writing on technical topics.

Founder and PMC chair of DevStream@CNCF, ex-AWS senior DevOps, ex-Huawei tech expert, cloud architect for Daimler, Tesco, Credit Suisse, and other Fortune 500 corps. Writer at DevOps.com, guest expert at GitGuardian (DevSecOps), blog@Medium: https://medium.com/4th-coffee. Key speaker at the 1st Lisbon K8s meetup. Keynote speaker of BuildStuff 2022. I specialize in DevOps and cloud-related technologies, like CI/CD, developer tools, Terraform, AWS, etc., and I blog on DevOps/DevSecOps.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am truly excited and honored to be an ambassador for the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). This opportunity allows me to contribute to the promotion and adoption of cutting-edge cloud-native technologies, which play a crucial role in shaping the future of software development and infrastructure. Being an ambassador also connects me with a vibrant, passionate community of professionals who share insights and experiences, fostering collaboration and innovation. I am genuinely grateful for this chance to learn from others and help drive the industry forward, making a meaningful impact on the cloud-native ecosystem.

Yoshiyuki Tabata is a Senior OSS Consultant at Hitachi, Ltd, responsible for API Security, especially Authentication/Authorization. As an authentication and authorization expert, he mainly consults on authentication and authorization infrastructure and API infrastructure, for example designing and building API/SSO systems in the financial, public, social, and industrial fields. He’s also a contributor to API-related OSSs such as Keycloak and 3scale and develops features based on feedback from actual projects he consulted. He’s also a conference speaker of API-related events and an author of some books and web articles about Identity and Access Management.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I usually consult with our customers on authentication and authorization infrastructure and API infrastructure (I have experience building systems for finance and government using Keycloak and Kubernetes), and it seems that the adoption rate of the CNCF family in general systems is still low in Japan. Also, in systems that adopt the CNCF family, there are many systems with weak security due to placing too much emphasis on developer experience and agility. Therefore, as a CNCF ambassador, I would like to use the knowledge I have cultivated through many projects (not only the knowledge as a security consultant but also the knowledge as a Keycloak contributor and a conference speaker) to disseminate solutions and know-how for a better and more secure CNCF ecosystem.

My agenda is taking care of team serving cloud platform and design it’s architecture. I’m a cloud enthusiast who missed events and community in my area. So I have relaunched Cloud Native Prague meetups and I co-organize Kubernetes Community Days Czech & Slovak.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m honored to be an ambassador as I can help with spreading knowledge about fantastic cloud native technologies and connecting people with the same interest. It can help them to solve their issues instead of reinventing the wheel over and over again.