For Andrea Giardini, the power of cloud native isn’t just in all the obvious things – community, technology exchange, problem solving – but in what you can’t see, those unexpected connections and efforts that happen against all odds.
Andrea should know, of course. He’s not just a CNCF ambassador, and a long-time cloud native consultant, but he’s also the person behind the wildly popular KubeTrain, or how roughly 300 people made their way across Europe to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe last year in Paris and hundreds did so again this year to KubeCon in London. Andrea said the idea for KubeTrain came to him on a summer’s day in 2023, literally out of nowhere, and while he thought it would be really cool, he didn’t think it would necessarily go anywhere.
But that’s where the power of cloud native kicked in. “It’s something that, in true honesty, I never thought would’ve happened,” he said. “This was just a crazy idea that I had. I knew that the cloud native community is very strong and it’s very united, but the idea wasn’t the issue, it was the execution. And then as soon as I started talking to people, I realized how much people were interested in this initiative. And then the whole thing literally exploded in my hands where there was just so much enthusiasm and so many people wanted to help and contribute and make it happen that I could not just ignore it and drop it.”
Of course, by that time Andrea had a solid reputation in the cloud native community, after more than five years of contributions including organizing a KCD in Amsterdam in 2023 and meetups in Paris and Amsterdam, not to mention his status as a CNCF ambassador. So he and his friends began to think through his crazy idea: how to get a lot of people to KubeCon in Paris on trains while making the process environmentally friendly, fun, community-building, and of course as affordable as possible. “During the train trip, you have the possibility of interacting with people that live in the same place where you live that attend the same meetups that you do, and then once you get to the destination, you’ll get to a much broader conference where you get people from all over the world,” he explained. “So even if you need to spend a couple of hours more on a train trip compared to a plane trip, it doesn’t really matter because you’re still spending time with friends, with colleagues, with interesting people talking about interesting topics. We tried to push train travel in a way that makes the whole trip more affordable and also more fun. And all of this also helps the environment.”
In the end, there were 10 KubeTrains for Paris organized by communities all over Europe. And for KubeCon in London, there were two main and some satellite trains. “This year KubeCon was on an island,” Andrea said laughing. “That made it a little bit more complicated.”
But Andrea is up for the challenge, and in fact, he likes to mix things up whether it’s moving around or his career, where he prioritizes having a mix of different experiences. “I like to do different things,” he explained. “I like to do some technical work. I like to do some trainings and workshops. I like to do some organizing meetups and conferences, organizing events, taking on initiatives like KubeTrain for CNCF and the open source world. In general, the tech world allowed me to really make my days and work more exciting. So this is how I found my balance. And as long as I’m learning from other people, as long as I’m surrounded by people where I feel like I have something to learn for my career professionally, but also personally, that makes me happy and that’s what I want to continue to do.”
Or to put it another way: “The cloud native community is a great way to make things happen.”
But the cloud native community is also vast, making it sometimes a bit overwhelming to newbies. Andrea’s best advice: decide what you are most interested in doing – technical or non-technical – and then jumping in and taking the first step.
That strategy has worked for him every step of the way, including the KubeTrain. “I had a random idea that went from nothing to a party in Paris with over 300 people,” he said. “I never thought it would have happened. All of this was born out of nowhere…just enthusiasm.”