It’s CD AND GitOps, Not CD or GitOps

"You don't need CD anymore, GitOps replaces it." The reality? You need both. The OpenGitOps principles clearly define what GitOps is—and what it is not. GitOps owns the last mile of delivery: declarative state, pull-based reconciliation, and drift detection. But CD covers everything leading up to (and surrounding) that moment—builds, security scans, policy checks, pre- and post-deployment validation, approvals, RBAC, notifications, and day-2 operations. In this session, we’ll draw clear lines of demarcation and show how to integrate CD and GitOps without discarding 15 years of hard-earned delivery best practices.

From EC2 to Kubernetes: Takeaways from a brownfield migration

This is a case study of how we migrated our SaaS product from dedicated Windows VMs to a scalable, containerized Kubernetes environment.

Initially, every customer ran on their own Windows VM—an expensive and inflexible setup that quickly became a bottleneck to growth. Kubernetes offered a compelling alternative, but the migration was far from simple.

We’ll walk through the whole arc of this transformation: a nine-month migration process, the hurdles of transitioning legacy workloads, and the operational challenges we faced post-migration.

This talk will discuss:
- Why we moved from EC2-hosted Windows VMs to Kubernetes and how we made it work.
- How managed services simplified our database and file storage operations.
- Lessons learned from switching to a Linux-based containerized environment.
- Deployment strategies that included internal “dogfooding” and phased release rings.
- Methods for fine-tuning CPU and memory allocation based on real-time usage patterns.

Thanks to our new Kubernetes-based architecture and managed cloud services, we can onboard hundreds of new customers weekly with minimal effort or disruption.

The target audience for this talk is someone aware of kubernetes basics, such as nodes, containers, and namespaces, but not an expert. It is designed for anyone who has been a developer, operations, or platform engineer for with 2+ years of industry experience.

How we progressively deliver changes to Kubernetes using Canary Deployments and Feature Flags

This is the case study of how we changed how we ship software.

With thousands of customers, each in their own Kubernetes container, deploying updates was tough. Off-hours schedules meant it took over 24 hours to push a new version. If something broke, we had to scramble. Canary deployments let us update small groups of customers at a time. We built a tool to stop rollouts fast when issues appeared, limiting the damage.

In the past, new features went to everyone at once. Rolling back wasn't an option. If something failed it'd leave customers stuck in the mess. Now, using OpenFeature, we hide new functionality behind feature flags. We release features to small groups, gather feedback, and test internally for weeks. If things go wrong, we flip the flag off and move on.

This two-pronged approach lets us avoid risky big-bang releases. We went from deploying every 10 days to every 4, with fewer than 1% high-severity defects. Most of these are resolved before customers notice them.

Canary Deployments are a myth - true progressive delivery occurs via OpenFeature

Based on two decades of deploying and rolling back software and seven years of helping customers achieve their CD goals, this session debunks myths about canary deployments. While they are viewed as essential to progressive delivery, they are far from a universal solution.

Canary deployments rarely uncover last-minute issues in strong CI/CD pipelines. They demand significant investment in deployment processes, database compatibility, and rollback strategies—often outweighing the benefits. Most importantly, they lack precision, requiring workarounds for targeting subsets of users.

This session shows that OpenFeature meets progressive delivery goals without overhauling your build and deployment processes. It allows you to separate deploying new versions from releasing functionality. Rollbacks require a simple toggle instead of redirecting to an old version. With segmentation, OpenFeature enables targeted rollouts to specific users or groups, gathering feedback over time.

Would You Let an Intern Change Production? Where AI Fits in CI/CD

AI is reshaping software delivery, and it’s not going away. The question for platform engineers isn’t whether to use AI in the CI/CD pipeline—but where and how. This session shares lessons learned from integrating AI into a continuous delivery tool, including what worked, what didn’t, and where guardrails are essential.

Because AI is inherently non-deterministic, it should not decide the actual steps executed in a pipeline—doing so introduces risk and compliance concerns. Instead, AI can add value by generating deterministic pipeline definitions, triggering workflows, analyzing failures, and recommending remediation steps.

Platform engineers must define the boundaries. The key takeaway: people are non-deterministic too. Treat AI like you would a human contributor—constrain what it can do based on trust. For some organizations, that may mean “intern-level” access limited to dev and test. For others, it may act like a senior engineer—able to propose process changes, but never deploy directly to production.

Yes, I Demoted Myself on Purpose (No, I Don’t Regret It)

In 2018 I joined Octopus Deploy as an Sales Engineer. By 2019, I was a Vice President of the Customer Success team on the executive leadership team, helping guide a fast-growing company from 70 people toward 150 and beyond.

From the outside, it looked like success. Inside, it felt misaligned. I was never a natural strategist, disliked budgets, dreaded performance reviews, and quietly kept one foot in hands-on work. In 2022, when an opportunity arose, I volunteered to step down to an IC role—an unconventional move that proved transformational.

This talk explores why management isn’t the only path forward, how scaling organizations can outgrow leaders (and vice versa), and why honest self-assessment matters more than title.

Kubernetes for the rest of us

Kubernetes, often perceived as a complex "black box," is a robust platform for container orchestration. This conference session is tailored for those who may not directly manage Kubernetes clusters but seek to understand its fundamental workings. This session aims teach attendees the basics on running a container in a Kubernetes cluster, particularly with an external database backend.

- Core Kubernetes Concepts: Explore essential concepts such as services, pods, nodes, clusterIPs, ingress controllers, secrets, deployments, and more. Gain a foundational understanding of how these components interact within the Kubernetes ecosystem.
- Deployment Strategies and CI/CD Pipelines: Unpack deployment strategies and dive into (CI/CD) pipelines. Understand the role of automation in managing containerized applications and discover where the emerging GitOps methodology fits into the Kubernetes landscape.
- Hands-On Learning Strategies: Equip yourself with practical knowledge by exploring ways to advance your understanding. Learn how to install and manage a Kubernetes cluster locally, providing a hands-on experience to solidify your comprehension.

By the session's end, participants will have a foundational grasp of Kubernetes concepts, insights into deployment strategies and CI/CD pipelines. Whether you're a developer, part of an operations team, or simply curious about container orchestration, this session simplifies Kubernetes, making its powerful capabilities accessible to all.

This session is designed for anyone who is aware of kubernetes and containers but isn't directly responsible for hosting or managing the cluster.