Often, users think that open source is "free" - costing them no money, time, or effort. This talk challenges that mindset. Hitting "kubectl apply" is just the beginning of a long journey toward a reliable, sustainable, and secure production environment. We will explore the critical layers of Strimzi ownership: from securing your container supply chain and mirroring images to handling CVEs in base images and dependencies. Even when there is no official patch release. Join this session to learn how to move beyond basic installation and take full control, responsibility, and ownership over your Strimzi installation.