Jerome Guionnet
Chief Architect Guidewire Cloud Platform
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Jérôme Guionnet is the Chief Architect for Guidewire Cloud Platform (GWCP), where he spearheads the core platform software architecture. He joined Guidewire in 2015, playing a pivotal role in the company's transition to cloud-based solutions. Before his tenure at Guidewire, Jérôme was the Senior Director of Cloud Architecture at Zuora, a pioneer in the subscription economy.
Component Contributor Architecture: Democratizing Platform Engineering with CNCF Projects
At Guidewire, we needed a Kubernetes platform that reliably runs mission-critical insurance workloads while empowering teams to innovate rapidly. We developed the Component Contributor Model, combining Crossplane’s resource abstraction with KubeVela’s Open Application Model into a modular, extensible architecture. Application teams can now build and integrate platform components directly, eliminating centralized bottlenecks. We standardized a component lifecycle to scale across diverse cloud services. Explicit trust boundaries preserve security while granting developer autonomy. A governance layer balances speed with stability. In this session, you’ll discover how we configured a contributor-driven, secure platform; managed component lifecycles at scale; and applied practical governance frameworks. You’ll gain actionable patterns for leveraging Crossplane and KubeVela in production, plus strategies to evolve your platform as organizational demands grow.
K8s Complexity Tamed: One Interface to Rule Them All with CNCF Incubating project KubeVela
Platform fragmentation is a silent productivity killer in Kubernetes. As our platform grew, so did its complexity—forcing developers to master observability, authentication, cost control, and more just to deploy a simple service. In this session, we’ll show how we turned a fragmented ecosystem into a unified experience using KubeVela and the Open Application Model. You’ll see how we:
Adopted KubeVela as a universal platform interface
Developed a componentized model so developers declare needs, not implementation
Created reusable traits that auto-inject observability, compliance, and best practices
Reduced cognitive load and boosted application quality
The outcome? Developers build and ship faster, SREs sleep better, governance runs itself, and teams spend less time wrestling with YAML and more time delivering value.
Guidewire Cloud Platform: Building an Open, Extensible Platform with Crossplane and KubeVela
Guidewire's Cloud Platform (GWCP) is a Kubernetes-based platform running mission-critical insurance transaction systems across Java app servers, microservices, and data services. We're adopting Crossplane and KubeVela to improve modularity and extensibility.
The crossplane abstraction layer allows us to manage resources and compose higher-level APIs. KubeVela implements the Open Application Model, enabling us to describe required application components and their assembly order.
To accelerate innovation, we aim to open GWCP for developers who are experts in new cloud services the platform does not yet support so they can contribute specialized components.
Component contributors can develop, test, and promote their components adhering to shared standards.
This session will cover:
GWCP's architecture with Crossplane and KubeVela
The contributor model and component lifecycle
Establishing trust boundaries and sharing responsibilities
How application teams consume contributed components
DevContainers Meet KubeVirt: Next-Gen Kubernetes Developer Environments
Developer environments often lag in cloud-native transformation. While production moves to containers, developers remain tied to local machines or VMs. In this session, we’ll show how Guidewire extended its Kubernetes platform to host full developer environments as managed VMs. We’ll share our journey using KubeVirt to deliver browser-accessible workspaces—with GUIs, DevContainers, and persistent storage—running inside EKS clusters alongside containerized workloads.
You’ll learn how we:
Built zero-install, browser-only developer environments
Hosted DevContainers inside KubeVirt VMs for consistent, shareable setups
Provided safe Kubernetes access via vCluster for deployment testing
Integrated with Backstage for service scaffolding and management
Ensured enterprise-grade security without compromising developer experience
Ideal for platform teams seeking scalable onboarding and uniform development environments.
Component Contributor Architecture: Democratizing Platform Engineering with CNCF Projects
At Guidewire, we needed a Kubernetes platform that reliably runs mission-critical insurance workloads while empowering teams to innovate rapidly. We developed the Component Contributor Model, combining Crossplane’s resource abstraction with KubeVela’s Open Application Model into a modular, extensible architecture. Application teams can now build and integrate platform components directly, eliminating centralized bottlenecks. We standardized a component lifecycle to scale across diverse cloud services. Explicit trust boundaries preserve security while granting developer autonomy. A governance layer balances speed with stability. In this session, you’ll discover how we configured a contributor-driven, secure platform; managed component lifecycles at scale; and applied practical governance frameworks. You’ll gain actionable patterns for leveraging Crossplane and KubeVela in production, plus strategies to evolve your platform as organizational demands grow.
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