Dutch Cloud Native Day 2025 – Field Notes from Utrecht
1. Why this event mattered
After a strong debut in Amsterdam last year, the Dutch Cloud Native Day (DCND) returned with a bigger venue, three parallel tracks and a single ambition – re‑energise the Benelux cloud‑native community. The 2025 edition delivered on that promise, pairing deep‑dive talks and practical workshops with a hallway track that felt more like a reunion than a conference.
2. First impressions – registration & vibe
The day kicked off inside Utrecht’s Jaarbeurs Supernova with fast check‑in queues, neon‑striped lights and a table-full of OSS stickers. Crew shirts, lanyards and friendly volunteers set the tone: contributor‑first, ego‑last.
3. Content highlights
| Time | Track | Session | Why it resonated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:10 | Progress | Staying Human in a Machine‑Accelerated World | A timely reminder that empathy scales even when clusters do. |
| 11:10 | Mission 2 | The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Cloud Native | Standing‑room only – proof the ecosystem still on‑boards newcomers. |
| All‑day | CFP track | Lightning talks on eBPF + runtime security | Opinionated & practical, exactly what platform teams need. |
4. Hallway track = real value
Between sessions the expo floor became an impromptu ideas market:
- Book exchanges – a stack of Kubernetes Recipes turned into the perfect ice‑breaker.
- Sponsor demos – Platinum booths (Exoscale, Mirantis, HCS Company) doubled‑down on internal developer platforms. Isovalent previewed new Tetragon features – fitting given the eBPF buzz.
- Career serendipity – impromptu chats on GPU tenancy, GitOps bootstrapping and SOC‑2 evidence automation translated into concrete follow‑ups.
5. Emerging themes & strategic takeaways
| Theme | Signal from DCND | Implication for teams |
|---|---|---|
| AI × K8s | Live demo on wildfire‑prevention ML models running in‑cluster | GPU scheduling & cost‑aware autoscaling climb the backlog. |
| eBPF everywhere | Full sponsor aisle + packed talks | eBPF moves from nice‑to‑have to baseline SRE skill. |
| Platform maturity | ING case study – 1k Helm releases per day | Focus shifts from cluster plumbing to DevEx & DORA metrics. |
| Community first | PyLadies workshop & diversity tickets | Local meetups remain the fastest on‑ramp for talent. |
6. Personal highlights
- Live demos that worked. Tetragon traces lighting up, real‑time.
- Tangible next‑steps. Three separate hallway chats already booked in my calendar.
- Joy of print. The selfie‑wall of engineers holding Kubernetes Recipes says physical books still spark delight.
7. Gratitude & next steps
Huge thanks to the all‑volunteer DCND crew and the sponsors who kept the espresso flowing.
Call to action
- Join the
#dutch‑cloud‑nativeSlack and upcoming meet‑ups. - Experiment with one new eBPF tool before Q4.
- Share your own lessons – blog, OSS PR or lightning talk. The community grows when we contribute back.
See you in Utrecht next year – until then, keep shipping, automating, and stay human.
Got feedback or want to co‑present a talk in 2026? Ping me on LinkedIn.