Kubernetes Athens vol26

We are pleased to bring you the following two talks. This event will be held in the offices of our sponsor Agile Actors, Εθνικής Αντιστάσεως 62, Χαλάνδρι 15231 στην αίθουσα "Neverland" που βρίσκεται στον όροφο -1. Παρακαλώ να έχετε μαζί σας ταυτότητα για την περίπτωση που σας ζητηθεί στην είσοδο.

1st talk: Beyond Containers: Unikernels & Specialized Kernels in Kubernetes

Abstract: Containers have revolutionized cloud-native applications, but security concerns have sparked a renewed interest in VMs - especially microVMs - to provide stronger isolation. However, running containers inside VMs comes at a cost: added complexity and resource inefficiency.

What if we could have the best of both worlds - stronger security without the overhead? Specialization is the key! Unikernels - lightweight, single-purpose kernels tailored for an application - offer VM-grade isolation with minimal resource usage. But here’s the catch: building applications as unikernels isn’t always straightforward. It often requires significant effort to adapt software to run without a traditional OS.

An alternative? Bundling applications with specialized Linux kernels - stripped down and optimized for their exact needs. This preserves isolation while keeping the familiar Linux environment intact.

In this talk, we introduce urunc [1], a Kubernetes-compatible container runtime that seamlessly deploys specialized application kernels. We’ll also showcase bunny [2], the tool that packages applications either as unikernels or as combined kernel+app bundles, making specialized deployments more accessible. Expect insights on sandboxed application orchestration, hypervisor support, and practical use cases - all with a fresh take on the future of cloud-native infrastructure.

[1] https://github.com/nubificus/urunc
[2] https://github.com/nubificus/bunny

Presenter: Anastassios Nanos is a computer systems researcher specializing in performance, scalability, power efficiency, and security across the systems software stack. After spending a year in academia as a postdoctoral researcher, in 2015, he transitioned to consulting, collaborating with UK and EU firms to develop solutions for efficient workload execution in Cloud and Edge environments. In 2020, he shifted his focus full-time to assembling and leading a team dedicated to advancing lightweight virtualization, unikernels, and seamless application deployment across Cloud and Edge infrastructure. He received his Dipl. Eng. (2006) and PhD (2013) from CSLab, NTUA, Greece.

2nd talk: Kubernetes Long-Term Support (LTS)

Abstract: The rapid release cycle of Kubernetes poses challenges for users and enterprises requiring long-term stability and support. Kubernetes Long-Term Support (LTS) aims to bridge this gap by offering extended maintenance and security updates, ensuring reliability for production workloads.

This presentation explores the significance of Kubernetes LTS and its impact on K8s adoption. We discuss the key challenges the upstream LTS working group is trying to solve and we dive into the internals of how LTS is implemented by Canonical.

Presenter: Konstantinos Tsakalozos is an Engineering Manager at Canonical. He has been working on open source software for the past 9 years. He is the original author of the MicroK8s Kubernetes distribution that targets developers, IoT and edge. Prior to Canonical he was with Microsoft working in the Big Data Group. Konstantinos holds a Ph.D. on IaaS resource allocation. He is currently based in Athens, Greece where he runs the Athens Kubernetes meetup.