Building a Culture for a Kubernetes-Based Platform in a Bank

Building a Culture for a Kubernetes-Based Platform in a Bank discusses the challenges and lessons learned by Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin while implementing a Kubernetes-based platform at their bank. The difficult part was not just deploying Kubernetes, but also building a culture around it through community of practice, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership.

Trust was built by running real workloads and operating the platform day after day. Open source was initially met with questions about support and accountability. Cusin explained that they treated their first Kubernetes version like a project and delivered it, which helped adoption. However, the operation was hard due to unclear responsibilities and teams consuming the platform without contributing.

The key to success was building a culture with a community of practice, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership. They invited people to experiment, such as through yearly competitions where teams submitted ideas, and the winning idea was implemented. Many improvements came from the bottom up, according to Paramonova.

They used open source as a compass to orientate themselves, recognizing the strong Kubernetes with transparent governance and real production users. When Kubernetes appeared, they followed its guidance, and now they apply the same approach to other technologies like OpenStack.

Cusin emphasized that structure first, and culture follows. Every organization and regulated environment has its own constraints, so a compass like open source is needed to guide the journey. For them, open source was the compass that helped them recognize the right opportunities as they arose.