At KubeCon in Salt Lake City, Ann Schlemmer, CEO of Percona, emphasized the importance of community in open source, reflecting on the growth and challenges in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Even though Kubernetes started off as a stateless workload, soon it started managing stateful workloads leading to addressing data and database related challenges. Since 2018, Percona has been a key contributor in this space, most recently launching Everest, an open-source, cloud-native database alternative for private databases.

Schlemmer also gave an update on the Data on Kubernetes (DoK) community and its growth, describing it as a multi-vendor initiative committed to advancing the full-stack infrastructure for Kubernetes. Schlemmer admits that DoK is still in its infancy and on shaky ground, despite experiencing growing adoption.

There are challenges in making DoK as performant as it needs to be. Additionally, some companies are experiencing “scaling by credit card” issues, particularly those building on top of open source without being truly open source. As a hardcore supporter of open source, Schlemmer highlights the importance of community contributions and the drive to continuously improve the ecosystem.

Schlemmer emphasized the need for improved performance and security in data management, noting the 2024 Data on Kubernetes report’s findings on increased adoption and ongoing challenges. Percona’s presence at KubeCon included sponsorship and discussions around scaling without centralizing, reinforcing their commitment to true open-source solutions.

Questions discussed

• How does Percona fit into the Kubernetes ecosystem?
• What kind of struggles and challenges do people face with databases in Kubernetes?
• Can you provide more details about the Data on Kubernetes (DoK) community?
• What trends are you seeing in terms of data and databases in the Kubernetes ecosystem?
• What kind of presence does Percona have at this event?
• What kind of discussions have you had with attendees?

Guest: Ann Schlemmer (LinkedIn)
Company: Percona
Show: Let’s Talk