Cloud Native London, September 2023

Hi folks!

Welcome to our September Cloud Native London meetup, join us to hear from our three great speakers and network with your fellow techies over pizza and drinks, or alternatively chat and following along on Youtube!

6:00 Pizza and drinks

6:30 Welcome

6:45 Running Policy in Hard to Reach Places with Wasm & OPA (Charlie Egan, Styra)

7:15 Understanding Cloud Native Security: Acronyms, Attack Surfaces, and Runtime Protection (Pablo Musa, Sysdig)

7:45 Break

8:00 Cloud Native Storage & Stateful Workloads (Alex Chircop, Akamai)

8:30 Wrap up

The meetup will be hosted by Stephen Perera this month. Have a great month!

Cheryl (@oicheryl)

Running Policy in Hard to Reach Places with Wasm & OPA (Charlie Egan, Styra)

It’s 2023 and we’re at the point where we can run Wasm almost anywhere. Crucially, Wasm can be run in some places where others can’t follow. This makes Wasm an important tool if we want to standardize logic. We want to standardize the enforcement of business rules across the stack - from servers to smart phones. What if we could use the same language everywhere, new logic could be pushed out from a central location and we could deliver feedback to users immediately? We can achieve this using Wasm and Rego - the policy language of The Open Policy Agent project. Wasm is at home in many different environments, in this demo, we will show a proof of concept where we compile business rules in Rego into Wasm modules suitable for distribution to every policy decision point in our stack.

Understanding Cloud Native Security: Acronyms, Attack Surfaces, and Runtime Protection (Pablo Musa, Sysdig)

Confused by the many acronyms in cloud-native security? Terms like CSPM, KSPM, CIEM, and CWPP can make it hard to stay focused and productive. This talk clarifies these acronyms by explaining their meanings, connecting them to the increased attack surface, and discussing the related areas to protect. The talk explores the various acronyms and presents interesting research data. Finally, this presentation explains runtime security, demonstrating a Log4Shell attack and explaining how to detect and counter it. By the end of the talk, attendees will have a comprehensive understanding of the cloud-native security landscape (including key acronyms) and be equipped with the knowledge to implement a strong security practice.

Pablo is a tenured speaker and trainer with a proven track record in the computer software industry. As an expert in the Observability ecosystem, he embraces the cutting-edge world of microservices and cloud-based monitoring and security. Holding a Master of Science (MSc) in Distributed Systems and Programming Languages, Pablo is a passionate educator who firmly believes in the power of knowledge sharing and its transformative impact on the tech community.

Cloud Native Storage & Stateful Workloads (Alex Chircop, Akamai)

A discussion of the cloud native storage ecosystem and what to consider when deciding on solutions and services for your your application persistence requirements.

Find Alex on twitter: @chira001. Chief Product Architect at Akamai. Previously a founder and CTO of Ondat (formerly StoraeOS), building software defined solutions for cloud native environments. Alex is also a co-chair of the CNCF Storage TAG (previously SIG). Before embarking on the startup adventure he spent over 25 years engineering infrastructure platforms for companies like Nomura and Goldman Sachs.

Check out https://www.oicheryl.com/cloudnativelondon if you're interested in speaking or sponsoring.