As AI, edge, and high-performance workloads surge, teams are rediscovering that cloud-native doesn’t always mean virtualized. Bare metal is powering modern Kubernetes clusters—from training LLMs to running latency-critical edge apps—but its role is often overlooked.

In this talk, I share how OpenStack Ironic brings bare-metal provisioning into the cloud-native conversation. Attendees will learn how Ironic integrates with CNCF tools such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and Argo CD to deliver secure, observable, and automated hardware-level orchestration. Drawing from my real-world contributions to Ironic & Bifrost and community mentorship, I’ll show how to bridge legacy infrastructure with cloud-native pipelines using Terraform, GitOps, and CI/CD.

This session blends story and strategy—from writing code on a phone to contributing upstream—to demonstrate that open source levels the playing field. Participants will leave with practical patterns for deploying and managing Kubernetes-ready bare-metal clusters, reducing cost while increasing performance and transparency across environments.

This talk builds on my direct contributions to OpenStack Ironic & Bifrost, core projects under the OpenInfra Foundation (now part of CNCF), where I contributed to code reviews, bug reporting, and release documentation efforts:

OpenStack Ironic Contributions: bossfreeman9@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://review.opendev.org/q/owner:bossfreeman9@gmail.com

Launchpad Profile for Reported Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/~freemanboss

Technical Requirements:

Projector and stable internet connection (for optional demo showcasing provisioning via Ironic and Bifrost).

Pre-recorded or live code demo highlighting integration of Ironic with Kubernetes and GitOps workflows.

Target Audience:

Cloud engineers, DevOps practitioners, and contributors interested in bare-metal provisioning within modern CNCF ecosystems.

Open source developers exploring interoperability between OpenStack, Kubernetes, and CNCF observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and Argo CD).

First Delivery:
Based on learnings from my contributions to Ironic, and mentorship experiences at She Code Africa Lagos (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sca-lagos_scalagos-devops-technicaldeepdive-activity-7342914010343792640-Gr2y
) and ALX Software Engineering (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/habeeb-babasulaiman_as-a-community-champion-at-alx-while-tutoring-activity-7294235175490617344-B1E9
).

Community & Advocacy Work:

Contributor to CNCF and Linux Foundation ecosystems via projects such as Layer5 / Meshery (https://github.com/layer5io/layer5/pulls/FreemanBoss
), NFTOPIA (https://github.com/NFTopia-Foundation/nftopia
), and Veritix-Python (https://github.com/Lead-Studios/veritix-python
).

AWS Cloud Club Maintainer for UNILORIN (https://github.com/AWSCC-Unilorin/Official_website
) and community speaker at AWS Community Day West Africa 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/live/2k2kd0njoTY?si=yXXAaMiQHj-EPEqf
).

Selected MIT AI Global Hackathon Ambassador, promoting African participation in AI and open innovation (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/habeeb-babasulaiman_mit-hacknation-ai-activity-7382700188538146816-8OAR
).

Preferred Duration: 30 minutes (25-minute talk + 5-minute Q&A).
Presentation Format: Technical walkthrough combining demos, visual diagrams, and narrative storytelling—from low-resource environments to contributing upstream to OpenInfra and CNCF.

Previous Speaking Highlights:

Hacktoberfest 2025 – Open Source 101: https://bit.ly/alx9ja-se-hub-Open-Source-101-HacktoberFest-2025

AWS Community Day West Africa 2025: https://www.youtube.com/live/2k2kd0njoTY?si=yXXAaMiQHj-EPEqf

DevFest Ilorin 2025 (Organizer & Speaker): https://gdg.community.dev/gdg-ilorin/