Simon Forster
Technical Architect and CNCF Ambassador
London, United Kingdom
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Simon Forster is a CNCF Ambassador and cloud native technology architect and engineer based in London. Simon has extensive experience working in heavily regulated financial institutions on the design, delivery and security of critical cloud native applications. He has a specific focus on ensuring cloud native technologies deliver against business goals. As co-chair of the CNCF Cartografos Group, Simon developed and co-authored the CNCF Cloud Native Maturity Model
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A Practical Guide to Cloud Native Solutions: Demonstrating ROI and Business Impact
Navigating the cloud-native landscape can be daunting, especially when deciding whether to buy a commercial solution, invest in open source technologies, plan significant process change, or undertake building platforms. But once you’ve evaluated the technologies, run POCs, and planned out your processes, how do you convince your business to invest? In this practical session, we’ll give real world case studies of companies evaluating technologies and transformation and how they were able to convince “upper management” of the benefits.
We will spend the session going through the different materials and frameworks to create business alignment and even provide templates for calculating ROI, including development and operational efficiency, cost savings, and business agility metrics.
Whether you're a startup or an enterprise, this session will equip you with actionable steps to use when you present cloud native solutions for budget and investment.
Building the Composable AI Platform: From Hype to Production Reality
The promise of a composable AI platform is powerful: assemble best-of-breed tools to empower data scientists and AI engineers. The reality is often a path filled with hidden complexities, integration friction, and operational nightmares that pit innovation against stability.
This panel moves beyond the hype to share real-world lessons from the trenches. We will tackle the central conflict: How do you provide flexibility for ML experimentation without sacrificing the security, governance, and reliability required for production?
Join us to explore the successful patterns—and painful anti-patterns—for building these platforms. You'll leave with practical, unfiltered advice on what it truly takes to bridge the gap from an architectural dream to a production reality that works for everyone.
Conveying the Importance of Platform as a Product in the Cloud Native ecosystem
A problem in the cloud native community is explaining the value of cloud native to stakeholders. Yet AI and other emerging technologies are driving the need for cloud native and the support platforms provide. Implementing a Platform as a Product can increase the value to the diverse teams and businesses by delivering features faster and with a methodology that can support self-service and focuses on a user-centric approach.
By defining a platform as a product and not a project, they establish themselves as core business and an asset the business will invest in and iterate on over time, driving up the ability to provide capabilities for a business to deliver value to all customers.
Panellists will discuss a product approach to platforms, how they can be managed, iterated on, and mature within the organization. They will draw on materials such as the Platforms Whitepaper, Platform Maturity Model, and new content about Platform as a Product built by the Platform Working Group.
Explain Cloud Native Business Value to Your Boss
One of the challenges we have as a cloud native industry, is to explain its business value. We get caught up in the new open source project, auto-scaling, load-balancing, and more, but then we can't easily speak in the language the business leaders want to hear in order to spend money or sign off on projects. In this talk, we use the CNCF Cloud Native Maturity model to help educate how all cloud native practitioners need to explain business value to their boss.
The Business Benefits of Cloud Native
This panel discussion from the Cartografos Working Group will discuss the business of cloud native. After reviewing the latest iteration of the Cloud Native Maturity Model 3.0 where business outcomes were developed further, the panelists will discuss how technologists can better articulate the benefits of cloud native to their managers. The discussion will focus on why as an industry we must do better at communicating cloud native value specifically as we've seen budgets and resources cut. For any engineer in the cloud native space, this is a must attend panel.
The Cloud Native Maturity Model 3.0
In this talk, the Cartografos Working Group provides updates on the latest version of the Cloud Native Maturity Model.
An overview of the five stages of cloud native maturity will be provided, along with key updates such as the new inclusion of resources across the CNCF.
This session will benefit non-technical as well as technical contributors, and strategic decision makes may find the session of specific interest.
The session will also discuss how individuals and TAGs can to contribute to this non-code CNCF resource.
The State of Cloud Native Business Value in 2024
In 2024, what is the state of cloud native business value? We hear that it is marked by unprecedented growth and innovation, but is that what we are seeing?
In this panel discussion hosted by the Cartografos Working Group, we provide an update on how organizations of all sizes are leveraging cloud native technologies to enhance agility, scalability, and cost efficiency. Key advancements go beyond technology alone. Panelists will discuss how cloud native is streamlining operations, accelerating time-to-market, realizing ROI through more efficient resource utilization and reduced operational overhead.
Attendees will hear how cloud native can drive business goals including how cloud native platforms drive intelligent automation and data-driven decision-making. Attendees will hear how security and compliance frameworks have matured and how cloud native strategies are proving essential for competitive advantage and digital transformation across industries.
KCD New York 2025 Sessionize Event
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 Sessionize Event
CNCF-hosted Co-located Events North America 2024 Sessionize Event
Project Lightning Talk + ContribFest + Maintainer Track: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2024 Sessionize Event
KCD New York 2024 Sessionize Event
Maintainer Track + ContribFest: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024 Sessionize Event
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2023 Sessionize Event
Simon Forster
Technical Architect and CNCF Ambassador
London, United Kingdom
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