Kubernetes Austin

Building Production Ready Kubernetes, Security, Observability, Cost Control, and Privileged Workload Governance

Capacity:
in-person
Event date
May 28, 26
06:00 PM - 08:00 PM CDT
Location
Capital factory, 700 Brazos Street
About this event

Join us at Station Austin for Food, Drinks, and Kubernetes on Mar 26, 2026! Everyone is invited to join! We aim to provide the latest news about Kubernetes and CNCF projects.

We have three special guests: Hari Krishna Pokala will talk about Security + Observability + Cost Governance; Nishanth Sirikonda will talk about Kubernetes Cost Optimization and Deepak Verma will talk about Privileged Containers / Security.

We will meet in Downtown Austin for the May episode.

Station Austin (formerly Capital Factory) is generously hosting the Kubernetes Austin meetup!

Address: 701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701

Upon arrival at the building, please proceed to the 1st floor.

We'll be in the Apollo Room (look for Capital Factory signs) after 5:45 pm.

We know parking in Downtown is tricky! So, you can park in the building garage for just $8.00 (validation parking tickets will be distributed)!

Street parking will still be an option. More information on parking here: https://www.capitalfactory.com/parking/

Venue Sponsored by Station Austin Thank you to Station Austin for sponsoring Kubernetes Austin! Station Austin is the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas. They meet the best entrepreneurs in Texas and introduce them to their first investors, employees, mentors, and customers. To sign up for a Station Austin membership, click here.

Agenda
  1. 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM CDT

    Food + Networking

    in-person

    Great pizza, cold beers, and networking with awesome people.

  2. 6:30 PM - 7:00 PM CDT

    Talk: Security + Observability + Cost Governance

    in-person

    Kubernetes gives teams speed and scale, but without the right guardrails it quickly creates three major gaps: security risk, poor production visibility, and rising cloud costs. This session explains how to close those gaps using practical Kubernetes-native patterns: layered security, OpenTelemetry-based observability, and FinOps practices like cost visibility, right-sizing, and governance. The key message is simple: Kubernetes is powerful, but it must be secured, instrumented, and governed intentionally to deliver real value.

  3. 7:00 PM - 7:30 PM CDT

    Talk: Kubernetes Cost Optimization

    in-person

    Kubernetes can make cloud costs grow quickly when workloads are over-provisioned or scaling is not managed properly. This session shows practical, Kubernetes-native ways to reduce waste through right-sizing, better resource limits, effective autoscaling, spot/preemptible nodes, and smarter scheduling. Attendees will learn how to identify inefficient configurations and apply changes that can reduce cluster costs by 20–40% while maintaining performance and reliability.

  4. 7:30 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

    Talk: Privileged Containers / Security

    in-person

    Privileged containers in Kubernetes are sometimes needed for low-level workloads like networking, storage, and monitoring agents, but they come with serious security risks because they can access host-level resources. This session explains why running containers as root or privileged has historically been dangerous, and how modern Kubernetes controls can reduce that risk. Attendees will learn how to manage privileged workloads safely using Pod Security Standards, RBAC, admission controllers, capability scoping, and rootless alternatives while avoiding unnecessary exposure in application workloads.

Organizers