Building a European Cloud Orchestration Platform within an Enterprise

2026-06-25 · Source: InfoQ · Field: Technology & Digital — Cloud Computing & IT Infrastructure, Software Development & Engineering · Depth: Intermediate, short

Summary

An enterprise has developed a European Cloud Orchestration Platform to address the complexity and engineering burden of modern cloud deployments, which involve numerous tools and lifecycles. Presented by Maximilian Techritz and Johannes Ott at KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe, the platform leverages the Kubernetes ecosystem's unified Control Plane approach. It integrates tools like Crossplane for managing multi-cloud resources (Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Microsoft Azure), External Secrets Operator for credential syncing, Kyverno for policy adherence, and Flux for GitOps. The OpenControlPlane initiative enables companies to provide pre-configured Control Planes to development teams, simplifying tool management. To overcome varying Kubernetes experience, the team fostered adoption through monthly tech talks, inner-source collaboration, and user enablement, ultimately contributing to the EU-funded IPCEI-CIS project under the NeoNephos Foundation to strengthen European cloud native sovereignty.

Key takeaway

For DevOps Engineers struggling with multi-cloud complexity, consider adopting a Kubernetes-native Control Plane approach. This strategy unifies diverse cloud resource management, significantly reducing manual operations and accelerating software delivery. You should explore tools like Crossplane and Flux to declaratively manage infrastructure and configurations, fostering a more efficient and compliant deployment pipeline. Actively engage your teams through internal tech talks and inner-source initiatives to build expertise and drive adoption, ensuring a smoother transition to this unified orchestration model.

Key insights

Kubernetes Control Planes unify multi-cloud resource orchestration, reducing engineering burden and manual operations.

Principles

• Embrace Kubernetes ecosystem for unified control.
• Foster community through tech talks and inner-source.
• Start small, find pain points, enable contributions.

Method

Implement a Control Plane methodology by applying desired configurations declaratively to a Kubernetes cluster, using dedicated controllers to reconcile with cloud provider APIs.

In practice

• Use Crossplane for multi-cloud resource management.
• Implement GitOps with Flux for configurations.

Topics

• Cloud Orchestration
• Kubernetes Ecosystem
• Control Plane
• Crossplane
• GitOps
• Inner-Source Collaboration

Best for: CTO, AI Architect, MLOps Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer, VP of Engineering/Data

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by InfoQ.