KubeCon NA 2025 in Atlanta is officially a wrap! The Upbound team has returned home, thrilled from the energy, the curiosity, the questions, and the deep community love we felt all week.

From Platform Engineering Day to the Project Pavilion to the Solutions Showcase, we had nonstop conversations about control planes, internal platforms, Crossplane 2.0, and what “intelligent” really means for the next generation of platform teams.

The Momentum Behind Platform Engineering & AI

The momentum at KubeCon was unmistakable: platform engineering is accelerating fast, and AI is driving and reshaping what these platforms can deliver. Walking the expo floor and sitting in session after session, the buzz around AI was everywhere, not just as “hype,” but as a clear signal of where the industry is heading. 

Teams are sharing how they’re building platforms on top of Kubernetes and betting on its reconciliation loop as the core engine for reliability and scale.. AI is becoming a force multiplier, helping organizations streamline workflows, guide developers, and elevate the overall developer experience. 

The message was clear: platforms like Kubernetes aren’t just helping us scale cloud-native systems; they’re becoming the foundation that will carry us into the AI-native era. The conversations around Crossplane 2.0 and Intelligent Control Planes tied it all together, underscoring that the next wave of platforms will be scalable, powerful, and unapologetically API-first.

Platform Engineering Day 

Platform Engineering Day always feels like a big community reunion, and Atlanta showed up with all the vibes. Thank you to everyone who dropped by for early conversations, shared your platform-building wins and challenges, and helped kick off the week with so much energy.

Crossplane 2.0 + CNCF Graduation: A Huge Moment 🎓

We loved feeling the excitement around Crossplane 2.0 and celebrating Crossplane’s official graduation within the CNCF. From architecture questions at the project pavilion to the celebratory moments at the Crossplane graduation party, the support from contributors, maintainers, adopters, and curious new faces meant a lot to us.

Upbound Booth 💻

Our booth was busy all week with conversations about Intelligent Control Planes, Crossplane 2.0, and the evolving world of platform engineering. Whether folks were just starting their control plane journey or represented organizations already scaling multi-cloud platforms, the excitement and curiosity were nonstop. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, asked thoughtful questions, shared what you’re building, and made the booth such a vibrant spot for learning and connection.

We also had a blast walking attendees through our live demos. From the Grand Tour of Upbound to a view into our Reference Architectures with Crossplane 2.0, to the DevEx Builders Workshop and our AI-powered control plane demo. It was incredible to show what’s possible with Upbound Crossplane 2.0 and hear how teams plan to bring these ideas into their platforms. The curiosity, the questions, and the hallway follow-ups made the week so special for the team. If you missed a demo or would like to see what we are up to, schedule a demo with us.

Sessions & Recordings 📹

We know many of you asked about session recordings, slide decks, and deeper technical dives from KubeCon week; we’ve got you. Below is a roundup of all the talks featuring Upbound speakers and friends of the Crossplane community. Each summary gives you a quick taste of what you’ll learn and why it’s worth the watch.

Let the Platform Build Itself: Using AI To Construct an Internal Developer Platform With CNCF Tools

Viktor and Whitney explore how AI-driven agents can support platform teams by gathering context, guiding developers, and helping shape better workflows, all grounded in real CNCF tools. It’s a fun, opinionated walkthrough of what’s possible today (and what absolutely isn’t), perfect for anyone curious about where AI meets real-world platform engineering.

Crossplane - The Cloud Native Framework for Platform Engineering

Jared and Nic deliver a great Crossplane deep dive, kicking off with what Crossplane is, celebrating Crossplane becoming a CNCF graduated project, discussing how control planes work, what’s new in Crossplane v2, and where the project is headed. From namespaced resources to activation policies to operations and circuit breakers, this session is a great way to level up your understanding of the project’s evolution and future roadmap.

Tutorial: Build Your Internal Developer Platform With the Experts: A Hands-On Workshop

Ana Margarita, Cortney, Scott, and Christian take you on a full hands-on walkthrough of building an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) using Backstage, Crossplane, Argo CD, and Kyverno. The crew breaks down IDP fundamentals, shows how these CNCF projects fit together, and walks participants through building golden paths, adding new services, and creating real self-service workflows. A great watch if you want practical, grounded guidance that you can follow along from home.

The Evolution of Platform APIs in the Age of LLMs

Viktor unpacks the messy reality of using LLMs and agents with internal platforms: where they shine, where they fail hilariously, and what teams can do to bridge the gap using context, policies, and workflows. If you’re exploring how AI fits into platform engineering, this talk is both entertaining and full of lessons.

Tools and Strategies for Making the Most of Kubernetes Access Control

Lucas and Micah break down Kubernetes access control in a way that finally makes sense, starting with a walkthrough of the full lifecycle of an API request: authentication, authorization, admission, and everything in between. From there, they explore practical tools for auditing RBAC, tightening privileges, and avoiding accidental over-permissioning. They also dig into new fine-grained authorization features coming to Kubernetes with their latest KEP work, along with early demos showing how future policies can be more expressive and safer. A must-watch for anyone responsible for keeping clusters secure. 

Thank You All 💙

KubeCon is always about the people. Thank you to all the community members, contributors, customers, and curious attendees. Interested in learning more? Read more about Intelligent Control Planes. Missed us at KubeCon and want to see a demo of Upbound and Intelligent Control Planes? Book a demo

We can’t wait to see you all in Amsterdam! ✈️ 🇳🇱