If you’re like me, you’re probably itching to get out and about after months and months of virtual meetings and events. When I heard that KubeCon|CloudNativeCon NA was going to be a hybrid live/virtual event, I could hardly contain myself! From October 13th to 15th, this Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s flagship conference will take place both in Los Angeles, California and online where vendors will be showcasing a full range of technologies that support the cloud native ecosystem. And I’m going to proudly be there myself in the Platinum Sponsor Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) booth!

Who am I, you ask? Could it be? Has it been so long that you’ve been to an event that you’ve forgotten your dear, little friend, Sir Hackington? Or perhaps you have only recently joined our HPE Developer Community and we haven’t yet been properly introduced. My name is Sir Hackington Appbuilder III. I’m the cute little canine that travels with the HPE DEV team to different events as Guardian of the Swag. Here’s a picture of me in my glory days:

A lot has happened since then. HPE acquired several companies, along with important technologies, that boosted its position in the market by offering the enterprise-ready container platform for a hybrid world. Recognizing the critical need of companies today to manage data pipelines across hybrid computing environments from edge to cloud, HPE invested heavily in a 100% open source Kubernetes-based container environment from BlueData. It blended it with groundbreaking data fabric technology from MapR and added hooks for important open source projects; SPIFFE and SPIRE for security, and Apache Spark for data analytics. The final result is the HPE Ezmeral software platform, which ensures those who require data have easy and secure access to what they need regardless where they are. And customers can even consume this as a service through HPE GreenLake.

KubeCon|CloudNativeCon NA 2021

What’s happening onsite?

Starting at 10:30am PT, you’ll be able to find the HPE team at booth P4 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. The theme of our booth for this event is BUILD FAST. SECURE. TOGETHER. ANYWHERE. And that’s really what it’s all about – HPE working with developers and providing the tools to innovate and deliver solutions quickly and securely, from edge to cloud. Folks still working from home? Great! Need to share apps and information from one site to another and collaborate seamlessly? Great! The cloud is hybrid – just like this conference is – and HPE really knows how to enable this environment.

In the booth, there’s a presentation theater and three dedicated demo stations where you can physically talk with HPE subject matter experts. Technologies being presented include:

Apache Spark on HPE Ezmeral – where you’ll discover how to accelerate analytics with HPE Ezmeral by leveraging Apache Spark’s latest features

• Discover how HPE Ezmeral helps data scientists and engineers leverage Apache Spark 3 with Delta Lake integration
• Learn how Apache Spark applications easily access S3 storage
• Dig into how Delta Lake enables ACID transactions for enterprise-class storage access in Spark applications
• Watch a demonstration of the tools HPE Ezmeral provides for DevOps and Sys Admins to assist data scientists and engineers with elastic compute and storage resources in CNCF Kubernetes-based clusters

HPE CSI Driver for Kubernetes – where you’ll learn to speed up DevOps and boost operations with advanced data services

• Hear about multitenancy involving HPE storage for Kubernetes clusters with private cloud
• See how the HPE CSI Driver’s advanced security features encrypt volumes regardless of the storage backend, both in-flight and at-rest
• Learn about opportunities with Prometheus monitoring and alerting for cloud-native apps and infrastructure
• Become familiar with HPE partnerships in data protection and data management, including Veeam, Commvault, Cohesity, and Zerto, HPE’s latest acquisition
• Explore enhanced developer efficiency with file and block for K8apps and data management for stateful apps
• Get to know more about operational agility and data protection

Zero Trust – where you’ll observe how SPIFFE/SPIRE delivers strongly attested identities from edge to cloud to establish a zero trust security model

• Learn what HPE, the leading contributor to CNCF’s SPIFFE and SPIRE projects, is developing around zero-trust security for application infrastructures in Kubernetes and beyond
• Celebrate the milestones reached: The release of SPIRE V1.0 and the successful completion of a detailed CNCF security audit
• Familiarize yourself with new feature development, like support for serverless functions, hardware attestation using TPM devices, and integration with Istio, that are in progress

Check out these links to find out more information about what will be shown regarding HPE Ezmeral and the HPE CSI Driver for Kubernetes. You might also want to check out this blog post on how to Build an ML model with Spark on HPE to get some cool insight on one of the demos being shown there.

In the booth’s HPE DEV Community Center, take a tour of the HPE DEV portal – a door into the online dimension where developers and data scientists alike can find the resources they need to build innovative solutions on HPE products and solutions. This is where you’ll find me and all the HPE DEV swag.

I also heard that there was going to be a magician over in my area! As long as he doesn’t make me disappear, I’m good with that.

You’re going to want to pace yourself, because there are a lot of breakout sessions in addition to the presentations on the event floor. On Monday, October 11th, HPE will be hosting and sponsoring the CNCF’s Production Identity Day event. This provides a forum for SPIFFE and SPIRE users to work together. Speakers will include engineers from HPE and other vendors, as well as SPIRE users. If you can’t make it to this event, stop by the HPE booth to see a demo of new SPIRE features.

On Friday, October 15th, from 3:25-4:00pm, catch HPE Chief Technologist Tom Golway and HPE Fellow Thomas Phelan in their talk on Using Kubernetes with Data Processing Units to Offload Infrastructure. They plan on sharing some novel work related to offloading core Kubernetes software infrastructure components from the main CPU onto the processing units of DPUs that looks pretty interesting.

What’s happening online?

As I mentioned earlier, this is a hybrid event, with people being able to attend the conference virtually as well as in person. While I admit to missing the physical aspect of conferences like this, some of the best activities are found online.

As part of our online presence, the HPE DEV team will be delivering several live office hour sessions. Speak with HPE DEV team members to learn more about the HPE Developer Community and how you can benefit from joining it. Whether it’s information found on the web portal, technical blogs and tutorials, GitHub repos, free hands-on technical workshops, interactive technology talks, or online collaboration there’s treasure to be found when you’re an HPE DEV member! And it’s all free!

Just like what was done for KubeCon|CloudNativeCon Europe, the HPE DEV team is running a Treasure Hunt. This giveaway contest will run from October 11-17, 2021 – the week of the KubeCon event. Be one of the first to answer all the online questions correctly during this time period and you could win an HPE DEV hat!

One of my fondest memories of pre-pandemic events was when folks used to stop by the HPE DEV Hack Shack. There, they would engage in coding challenges, workshops, and play a fun, little retro arcade game called Hack Shack Attack! When the pandemic hit, the Hack Shack moved to an online presence. It’s now open 24/7. This means you can take workshops any time in the form of our HPE DEV Workshops-on-Demand. You can even play Hack Shack Attack! by visiting the Hack Shack Arcade. We even offer the ability to download stickers (virtual swag) from the site. Make sure you stop by and visit!

So, are you coming?

I’ve only scratched the surface of everything that will be going on at the event. I hear there’s going to be a couple of really cool surprises in the booth as well (did someone mention hoodies?), so come on by and check things out.

It feels like such a long time since we’ve had the chance to meet in person. I’m really excited about this opportunity. For those of you attending in person, remember to wear your mask. If you need an extra, we’ll have some over in the HPE booth. And for those of you attending online, don’t forget to visit the HPE DEV Hack Shack and check out what’s being offered there as well.