With the growing adoption of Kubernetes, many technologies, including Cloud Foundry, are evolving to embrace this tectonic shift in the industry. Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) has been going through a major transformation to embrace this change. However, this change doesn’t necessarily mean that Cloud Foundry is on its way out. On the contrary, like many major technologies, it will continue to serve a wide range of users and customers. What really matters is how Cloud Foundry leaders, including the foundation and companies sponsoring the project, look at this change; how committed they are to the users of this open source project.

In this episode of TFiR Let’s Talk, Swapnil Bhartiya sits down with Catherine McGarvey, Vice President of Software Engineering at VMware and Chris Clark, Program Manager at the Cloud Foundry Foundation, to discuss the state of Cloud Foundry today and how it is evolving as the momentum continues towards Kubernetes. They also discuss VMware’s continued commitment to the project and McGarvey’s recent appointment to the Cloud Foundry’s governing board.

Key highlights from the video interview are:

• The success of Cloud Foundry has been centered around putting developers first and thinking about their needs. McGarvey believes that that interest still exists today as they look at bringing that same level of understanding to Kubernetes.
• Clark believes all the same value propositions that cloud vendors had are still applicable today but the emergence of Kubernetes has changed the entire ecosystem. He explains how Cloud Foundry is helping to solve problems on day two, and how they plan to help developers deal with complicated data questions and Kubernetes in the future.
• Many are looking to move to Kubernetes and it can be challenging to get started. McGarvey tells us that if they are coming from a Cloud Foundry background, there are gaps such as an enhanced security posture and blue-green deployment. She feels that it is important to be open to the problems you are trying to solve with Kubernetes.
• Clark discusses how Kubernetes has a lot of momentum with large enterprises considering it. However, he believes that many people are still using Cloud Foundry on VMs, where the new lighter-weight implementation will provide an opening for those wanting to move towards Kubernetes.
• VMware is still seeing customers increasing their usage on the commercial side, with no indication that the technology is on its way out. McGarvey believes it is still very much solving a particular need well.
• McGarvey discusses why she joined the foundation’s governing board, saying that although she had been supporting a lot of the commercial side, she believed it was important to understand the open source side too. She explains her views on open source and its community and why she wanted to get involved.
• McGarvey’s role on the governing board is still not set in stone with the first board meeting scheduled for September. However, the Cloud Foundry Foundation is pleased to have her technical background and the leadership she can provide.
• They assure that Cloud Foundry users and big customers will continue to be supported for many years to come. Clark explains that Cloud Foundry is looking to see how it can fit more in the Kubernetes-native ecosystem. They will showcase the Korifi project on October 25 at Cloud Foundry Day to help get traction in the community.
• McGarvey believes that recent governance changes have made it simpler for getting started and knowing who to reach out to. She reiterates that VMware is not stepping away and will continue to invest as they look at the Kubernetes path.

Connect with Catherine McGarvey (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Connect with Chris Clark (LinkedIn)
Learn more about VMware (Twitter)
Learn more about Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) (Twitter)

The summary of the show is written by Emily Nicholls.