One stack, two workloads
How teams run inference, agents and traditional services on the same Kubernetes substrate — scheduling, GPUs, multi-tenancy and cost control.
Virtual event · Free Thursday, October 29, 2026 · 9:00 a.m. EDT
Cloud Native: The AI Stack
The same stack. Infinite possibilities.
AI-native applications are built on the same technologies, practices, and platforms that cloud native pioneered. From infrastructure to intelligence, it's all cloud native.
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2,000Attendees
25+Speakers
12+Sessions
3Tracks
About the event
Everybody is building AI. Almost nobody is rebuilding the stack.
Cloud Native Now 2026 is a one-day virtual gathering for the engineers, architects and platform leaders who run the layers AI actually depends on. No hype keynotes. Practitioner sessions, real architectures, real failure modes.
Operate what you ship
Observability for non-deterministic systems, policy and guardrails, supply-chain security for models, and the SRE practices that keep agents from going sideways.
Built for decision makers
Platform engineering leaders get the budget, staffing and architecture context to make the next 18 months of AI infrastructure spend defensible.
Who's in the room
- Platform Engineering
- SRE & Operations
- Cloud Architects
- DevOps Leads
- ML / AI Platform Teams
- Security & Compliance
- Data Engineering
- CTOs & VPs of Engineering
Speakers
Meet the speakers
Agenda
Coming soon!
The stack
Explore the stack. Every layer gets a session.
Select a layer to see what we're covering, who it's for and where it sits in the agenda.
AI-Native Applications
What actually ships. Reference architectures from teams running AI-native products in production, the org changes required, and the honest total cost of ownership 18 months in.
Topics we're programming
- Reference architectures
- Production case studies
- TCO reality checks
- UX for uncertainty
- Team structure
Agents & Orchestration
Agents are distributed systems with worse failure modes. Durable execution, idempotency, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, MCP and tool registries, and blast-radius design for autonomous action.
Topics we're programming
- MCP & tool registries
- Durable workflows
- Idempotent tools
- Blast-radius design
- Agent identity
Model & Inference Services
Serving is the new API gateway problem. Routing across model families, batching and KV-cache strategy, quantization tradeoffs, and building a failover story for when your provider degrades.
Topics we're programming
- Inference gateways
- KV-cache & batching
- Quantization
- Open weights vs API
- Multi-model routing
Data & Vector Platforms
Retrieval is an operations discipline. Vector store selection and sharding, lifecycle and re-indexing, streaming freshness, and governance for the data your agents are allowed to read.
Topics we're programming
- Vector store ops
- Re-embedding at scale
- RAG freshness
- Lakehouse patterns
- Data governance
Platform Engineering
The internal developer platform is where AI adoption succeeds or stalls. Golden paths for model deployment, self-service GPU quota, templating agents, and what platform teams should refuse to own.
Topics we're programming
- Golden paths for ML
- Self-service GPU quota
- Backstage & IDPs
- Platform as product
- Team topologies
Observability & Telemetry
You cannot alert on a token stream the way you alert on a 500. Tracing across model calls, semantic evals in production, cost-per-request telemetry, and OpenTelemetry conventions for GenAI.
Topics we're programming
- OTel GenAI semconv
- Trace-based evals
- Token cost telemetry
- Drift detection
- SLOs for agents
Security & Policy
Provenance for models, not just packages. Supply-chain attestation for weights, prompt injection as an infrastructure problem, egress control for agents, and policy-as-code that survives a non-deterministic caller.
Topics we're programming
- Model provenance
- Agent egress control
- OPA / Kyverno
- Secrets for agents
- AI BOM
Kubernetes
The scheduler is the new bottleneck. Topology-aware scheduling, gang scheduling for training, device plugins and DRA, and running inference next to your web tier without either one starving.
Topics we're programming
- Dynamic Resource Allocation
- Gang scheduling
- Node topology
- Multi-tenancy
- Autoscaling inference
Containers
Container images are the AI distribution format. Expect hard talks on multi-gigabyte model images, layer caching at scale, OCI artifacts for weights, and cold-start math when your image is 40GB.
Topics we're programming
- OCI model artifacts
- Image bloat
- Cold starts
- Registry economics
- Sandboxed runtimes
Cloud Infrastructure
Compute, storage and networking are now judged by how well they feed accelerators. Sessions cover GPU and accelerator capacity planning, sovereign and regional footprints, and the economics of renting versus owning silicon.
Topics we're programming
- GPU capacity planning
- Multi-cloud placement
- Neoclouds
- Power & cooling
- FinOps for AI
Attend
Free to attend. Free to replay.
One registration gets you every track live, the full on-demand library, the slide archive, and the post-event research summary from Futurum.
- All 12+ sessions, live and on demand
- Speaker slides and reference architectures
- Live Q&A in every session
- Post-event Futurum research summary
- Access to the full Futurum @ KubeCon collection
- Certificate of attendance for CPE credit
Save your seat
By registering you agree that sponsors of sessions you attend may contact you.
Call for speakers
We want the talk you can only give because you actually ran it.
Sessions are selected by the program committee on the strength of the story, not the size of the logo. Vendors are welcome — pitches are not.
- CFP opens September 3, 2026
- CFP closes September 24, 2026
- Speakers notified October 6, 2026
- Event day October 29, 2026
What gets accepted
- A system you ran, with numbers you can share
- What broke, and what you changed because of it
- Architecture other teams can copy on Monday
- An honest view of trade-offs and cost
- 30 min talk
- 20 min case study
- 45 min panel
- 15 min lightning
Sponsorship
One partnership. Four stages. Six weeks of distribution.
Sponsorship at Cloud Native Now is not a single-day buy — it is an entry point into the whole Futurum @ KubeCon program. Sponsor here and you get a Techstrong TV Live interview at KubeCon. Sponsor Tech Field Day and you get a session at this event. Every partner, at every level, gets a Futurum analyst briefing and a custom content opportunity.
78%hold engineering manager level or above
2,000registered attendees expected
4connected programs, Oct 29 through KubeCon week
1.2Mmonthly Techstrong network reach
Every partner
Futurum analyst briefing
A working session with a Futurum analyst covering your category, positioning and where the AI stack is actually heading.
Every partner
Custom content opportunity
A co-produced asset built to your goal — research brief, executive Q&A, technical explainer or short-form video series. Clearly labeled.
Every partner
Techstrong TV interview
A studio or show-floor interview, cut for distribution across the Techstrong network and the Futurum @ KubeCon collection.
Every partner
On-demand collection placement
Logo and link on the unified Futurum @ KubeCon collection page, where all four programs live after the week ends.
Cloud Native Now → KubeCon week
Sponsor this event, show up on the floor
Every Cloud Native Now partner gets a Techstrong TV Live interview at KubeCon, cut and distributed across the network during the week.
Tech Field Day → Cloud Native Now
Sponsor Tech Field Day, get a session here
Tech Field Day partners receive a session slot at Cloud Native Now, so the technical story lands with the audience before the conference opens.
Cloud Native Now Partner
Entry point into the week
Open
- Sponsored 25-minute session on Oct 29
- Branding across event site, lobby and promo email
- Virtual booth with collateral and lead capture
- Techstrong TV Live interview at KubeCon
- Futurum analyst briefing
- One custom content asset
Content & Distribution Partner
Own the on-demand franchise
Open
- Association with a defined set of recorded programs
- Named in the Futurum @ KubeCon collection page
- Clip, newsletter and written-recap inclusion
- Techstrong TV Live interview at KubeCon
- Futurum analyst briefing
- Three custom content assets
Summit Conversation Partner
Most popular
Executive room, Monday morning
Limited
- Brand presence at Futurum Summit @ KubeCon, Nov 9
- On-site signage, verbal recognition, reserved seats
- Cloud Native Now session on Oct 29
- Panel seat when editorially qualified for the topic
- Techstrong TV Live interview at KubeCon
- Futurum analyst briefing + two custom assets
Integrated Week Partner
Very limited
All four programs, Oct 29 - Nov 12
Four partners only
- Presenting-level presence across all four programs
- Opening or closing slot at Cloud Native Now
- Anchor presence at the Summit on Nov 9
- Tech Field Day at KubeCon presenting slot
- Multiple Techstrong TV Live segments
- Co-branded Futurum research brief + content program
Partner with us
Become a Sponsor
Reach our audience of DevOps, cloud native, and AI/SRE decision-makers. Tell us what you're interested in and our team will follow up.
- Sponsorship: sponsors@techstronggroup.com
- Speaking: cfp@techstronggroup.com
- Everything else: events@techstronggroup.com
Questions
Everything else
How much does it cost to attend?
Nothing. Registration is free and includes every live track, the full on-demand library and the post-event research summary.
Is it really all virtual?
Yes. Every session streams online, so you can join from anywhere — no travel required.
Will sessions be available on demand?
Yes. Recordings post to the on-demand library shortly after the event and stay available to everyone who registered.
Can vendors speak?
Yes, on the merits. Talks are selected by the program committee and sponsored sessions are always clearly labeled.
Does sponsoring guarantee a speaking slot?
No. Sponsorship never buys a seat on an editorial panel. Sponsored sessions are separate and clearly identified.
How does this connect to KubeCon?
Cloud Native Now opens a four-program arc that runs through KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America in Salt Lake City, ending in one shared on-demand collection.
Can I sponsor more than one program?
Yes. Most partners take a package across two or more of the four stages — talk to us about a combined scope.
What is the CFP deadline?
The call for speakers closes several weeks before the event. Submit early; the committee reviews on a rolling basis.
Do I get a certificate for CPE credit?
Yes. Attend live and you can request a certificate of attendance after the event.
Who runs the event?
Cloud Native Now is produced by Techstrong Group, a Futurum company, together with Futurum Research.