feat: Kubecon recap

Signed-off-by: Gabriele Bartolini <[email protected]>

Author: gbartolini

content/posts/20251126-kubecon-na-2025/cover.jpg

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+title: "KubeCon NA Atlanta 2025: a recap and CloudNativePG’s path to CNCF Incubation"
+date: 2025-11-26T07:24:27+01:00
+description: "A recap of my three talks at KubeCon NA Atlanta 2025 detailing CloudNativePG (CNPG) advancements in PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, security integration with Keycloak, and the decision to apply for CNCF Incubation"
+tags: ["postgresql", "postgres", "kubernetes", "k8s", "cloudnativepg", "cnpg", "postgresql", "postgres", "dok", "data on kubernetes", "kubecon", "cncf", "incubation", "multigres"]
+cover: cover.jpg
+thumb: thumb.jpg
+draft: true
+---
+
+_This blog post recaps my eventful participation in KubeCon + CloudNativeCon
+North America 2025 in Atlanta, highlighting the key decision by maintainers to
+formally apply for CNCF Incubation for the CloudNativePG operator. I had the
+pleasure of delivering three presentations: a CNPG Lightning Talk focused on
+community contribution; a deep-dive with Yoshiyuki Tabata on implementing
+modern PostgreSQL authorisation using Keycloak and OAuth for robust database
+security; and a session with Jeremy Schneider introducing the new quorum-based
+consistency feature in CNPG 1.28 for safer cluster reconfigurations. Links to
+the videos of all three talks are shared within the full article._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+---
+
+**KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America** in Atlanta was a huge success,
+marking my 9th KubeCon since first attending in San Diego back in 2019
+(a streak thankfully re-established after the COVID interruption).
+It was an honour for me to represent my company, [EDB](https://www.enterprisedb.com/),
+which fully supports our open-source contributions as the highest form of
+innovation in technology.
+
+The event was an unparalleled opportunity to connect with numerous
+practitioners, professionals, and community members dedicated to the CNCF
+ecosystem, as well as CloudNativePG community fellows. I had the pleasure of
+speaking three times across the conference agenda this year.
+
+My primary goal for this participation was to go beyond the usual networking
+and actively engage with relevant **CNCF TOC** and **TAG members** to gauge the
+maturity and placement of **CloudNativePG (CNPG)**.
+We wanted to understand if our community-driven operator was truly in the right
+spot to apply for [**CNCF Incubation**](https://www.cncf.io/project-metrics/).
+
+I am thrilled to share that all of us maintainers decided to take
+the leap right there in Atlanta, submitting our formal application!
+
+You can follow our journey and show your support here:
+[CloudNativePG Application for Incubation](https://github.com/cncf/toc/issues/1961).
+
+## Project Lightning Talk: CloudNativePG, Running PostgreSQL the Kubernetes Way
+
+My first engagement was the [Project Lightning Talk](https://kccncna2025.sched.com/event/27d5y/project-lightning-talk-cloudnativepg-running-postgres-the-kubernetes-way-gabriele-bartolini-maintainer)
+in the CNCF projects event. This 5-minute slot was a fantastic opportunity to
+speak rapidly about **CloudNativePG**. I was pleased to see many attendees in
+the audience who not only use **Postgres in Kubernetes** but were already
+familiar with **CNPG**.
+
+The main message I conveyed was simple: join our vendor-neutral community!
+Contributions are vital, and even a simple act can help immensely—for instance,
+adding your **organisation** to the [`ADOPTERS.md` file](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md)
+helps us cross the chasm and strengthen our incubation application.
+
+![Cross the chasm](images/crossing-the-chasm-1800x687.png)
+
+We are a rapidly growing project, and I emphasised the diversity of contribution opportunities:
+
+> CloudNativePG is over 15 projects! You can become a contributor and owner of
+> our Helm charts, our Grafana dashboards, our container images, or our
+> metrics.
+
+*Watch the recording: [Project Lightning Talk CloudNativePG](https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DpYwYwehQX3U)*
+
+-----
+
+## Modern PostgreSQL Authorisation with Keycloak: Cloud Native Identity Meets Database Security
+
+The [second presentation](https://kccncna2025.sched.com/event/27FXv/modern-postgresql-authorization-with-keycloak-cloud-native-identity-meets-database-security-yoshiyuki-tabata-hitachi-ltd-gabriele-bartolini-edb)
+was a joint talk with **Yoshiyuki Tabata** of Hitachi, focusing on a critical
+security modernisation topic.
+
+The session tackled the obsolescence and inherent security risks of relying on
+static credentials (usernames and passwords) for database access in dynamic,
+multi-tenant cloud-native environments. We showed how traditional database
+authentication methods no longer meet modern security and compliance demands.
+
+We walked the audience through the solution: integrating **PostgreSQL
+authorisation with Keycloak**, an Identity and Access Management (IAM)
+open-source solution. The core concept is **externalising authentication and
+authorisation logic** from the database to enable centralised identity control
+across services. We demonstrated how to securely map Keycloak roles and groups
+directly to PostgreSQL privileges and enforce fine-grained access policies, all
+managed seamlessly in Kubernetes environments using **CloudNativePG**.
+We also touched upon how the innovative native OAuth support in PostgreSQL 18
+has the potential to fundamentally transform database authentication, not only
+in Kubernetes. For those interested in this cutting-edge approach, we also
+launched our experimental project, the **Postgres Keycloak OAuth Validator**,
+which you can find here:
+[cloudnative-pg/postgres-keycloak-oauth-validator](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/postgres-keycloak-oauth-validator).
+
+*Watch the recording: [Modern PostgreSQL Authorisation With Keycloak](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYgPemq06fg)*
+
+-----
+
+## Quorum-Based Consistency for Cluster Changes with CloudNativePG Operator
+
+My [final talk](https://kccncna2025.sched.com/event/27FfQ/quorum-based-consistency-for-cluster-changes-with-cloudnativepg-operator-jeremy-schneider-geico-tech-gabriele-bartolini-edb),
+delivered alongside **Jeremy Schneider** of GEICO Tech, focused on a major new
+feature introduced in **CloudNativePG 1.28**: **failover quorum** for cluster
+changes.
+
+This talk was originally submitted by Leonardo Cecchi, and I had the honour of
+stepping in for him last minute after he had to bow out for family reasons. We
+explored how the concept of **quorum consistency** can be applied to cluster
+reconfigurations in a single-writer database like PostgreSQL.
+
+We demonstrated how the **CNPG operator** uses this theory to maintain safety
+and avoid data loss during complex operations. Specifically, we detailed how
+this feature provides **quorum-based consistency** for critical stateful
+operator actions (like scaling and switchover).
+
+Achieving this requires very careful end-to-end coordination between the
+control plane and data plane algorithms—a necessity for achieving **Level V
+capabilities** for stateful operators on Kubernetes—ultimately providing
+reliable auto-healing under compounded failures or network partitions. We were
+pleased to share lessons and insights useful for maintainers of other
+Kubernetes operators for stateful workloads.
+
+*Watch the recording: [Quorum-Based Consistency for Cluster Changes with CloudNativePG Operator](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQUOO3-JRK4)*
+
+-----
+
+## Conclusion
+
+**KubeCon NA Atlanta** was a pivotal event for the entire **CloudNativePG**
+community. The engagement and positive feedback were overwhelming, and the
+decision to officially apply for **CNCF Incubation** with CloudNativePG marked
+a true high point.
+
+Another memorable moment was participating in the [KubeJam](https://kubejam.com/)
+event organised by [Testkube](https://testkube.io).
+
+![Kubejam](images/kubejam.jpg)
+
+Now, we look forward to the next major event in Europe, and I can't wait to see
+you all at [KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in Amsterdam](https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/),
+hopefully with CloudNativePG proudly holding Incubation status!
+
+---
+
+Stay tuned for the upcoming recipes! For the latest updates, consider
+subscribing to my [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbartolini/) and
+[Twitter](https://twitter.com/_GBartolini_) channels.
+
+If you found this article informative, feel free to share it within your
+network on social media using the provided links below. Your support is
+immensely appreciated!
+
+<!--
+_Cover Picture: [“TITLE“](URL)._
+-->
+