Speakers of 2026

Bio

Artem Lajko, certified CNCF Kubestronaut and Head of Platform Engineering, specializes in Kubernetes scalability and GitOps-driven workflows. He is the author of Implementing GitOps with Kubernetes and an IT freelancer writing for various publishers. As a Platform Engineering Ambassador, he supports companies and the community in adopting Platform Engineering, Internal Developer Platforms, and related technologies. Passionate about Open Source, he helps organizations choose the right tools, driving tech adoption and innovation.

Sessions

• Demystifying Managed Kubernetes

Bio

Tom leads the Business Unit Cloud & Platform Engineering at SQUER and is part of the leadership team in Munich. He is passionate about building cloud-native self-service platforms that empower engineering teams to move fast without compromising on security and governance. Before joining SQUER, Tom co-founded Unit 214, where he helped organizations modernize their software architecture and adopt cloud-native practices. When he's not designing Kubernetes-based platforms, you'll find him exploring the intersection of AI and infrastructure, which is exactly what brought him to this stage.

Sessions

• Beyond API Keys: Fine-Grained AI Agent Authorization for DevOps with OpenFGA

Bio

Nick is a Platform Engineer at iits-consulting, focused on building and managing Kubernetes environments at scale using cloud-native technologies. Quite often he spends his evenings experimenting with new technologies and later enthusiastically tries to convince others that they are worth exploring.

Sessions

• Demystifying Managed Kubernetes

Bio

Anton is an AWS Community Hero and helps companies around the globe build solutions using AWS, and specializes in infrastructure-as-code, DevOps, and reusable infrastructure components. He spends much of his time as an open-source contributor on various Terraform & AWS projects, such as Terraform AWS modules (downloaded more than 2 billion times), Terraform best practices ebook (www.terraform-best-practices.com), doing serverless with Terraform (serverless.tf), Terraform Weekly (weekly.tf), Your Weekly Dose of Terraform (http://bit.ly/terraform-youtube).

Sessions

• No More Forks: Policy Transformation for Terraform at Scale

Bio

Aris is a Staff Software Engineer at RudderStack with over 20 years of experience building scalable, high-performance systems across telecommunications, banking, European institutions, and data infrastructure. A core contributor to the open-source rudder-server, he specializes in Go, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures. Aris is passionate about designing elegant solutions, driving engineering best practices, and sharing insights on scalable data pipelines, enterprise DevOps, and software architecture.

Sessions

• Hard-won lessons after processing 6.7T events through PostgreSQL queues

Bio

Nico Meisenzahl is the COO at white duck. As a Cloud Solution Architect and Microsoft MVP, he is passionate about topics such as AI, cloud-native technologies, and internal developer platforms. In addition, Nico is a sought-after speaker at conferences, user group events, and meetups.

Sessions

• Agentic AI Under Attack: Live Demos of Exploits Through Autonomy and Trust

Bio

Krisztián is a principal engineer at Diligent with over a decade of hands-on experience in creating and maintaining software. Currently he is leading the movement of a diverse set of products towards the cloud. He is the founder of the Letscode.hu community, creating a supportive environment where individuals can thrive, share their knowledge, and collectively contribute to the advancement of technology.

Sessions

• You Call That an AI Agent?

Bio

Adrian is a Senior Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat and is migrating processes at least since 2010. He started to migrate processes in a high performance computing environment and at some point he migrated so many processes that he got a PhD for that. Most of the time he is now migrating containers but occasionally he still migrates single processes. Currently he serves as the OpenHPC project lead.

Sessions

• Building the Next Generation of Checkpoint/Restore in the Open

Bio

Abhimanyu "Chitra" Selvan is the founder of diabhey.com, helping AI-native startups win customers. Before that, he led developer advocacy at DigitalOcean, driving product activation and building technical partnerships. His engineering background spans safety-critical systems: cockpit software for Boeing 787 simulators, automated guided vehicles, and FDA-approved medical IoT. When not building, he's running marathons or trying to stay upright on a paddleboard.

Sessions

• Silicon Cortex: Building an Autonomous AI Engineering Team Inspired by a Thermal Printer

Bio

Marcel is a Senior Software Engineer with several years of experience working in the Kubernetes ecosystem and the Cloud Native domain.

Sessions

• Broadcasting Deployments: ORF's Journey to Bulletproof Kubernetes Releases

Bio

Marcelo S. Ancelmo has 23 years (and counting) of IT experience and has done a bit (or would it be a byte) of everything. A good old-fashioned troublemaker, he started his professional career as a Java programmer, fell in love with architecture (a passion he still pursues today), dove into middleware (with no regrets), built high-performing teams, and explored infrastructure and operations. Deeply engaged in the tech community, Marcelo joins Meetups wherever he goes, teaming up with JUGs, helping organize events when time allows, and contributing to working groups and committees. Along the way, he’s delivered consulting, training, mentorship, and conference talks. Today, he's Head of Solution Architecture at KPMG Switzerland, helping the company drive its digital transformation toward sustainable business agility, fueled by Architecture and DevOps, learning everything possible and enjoying the bumps along the ride.

Sessions

• AI Made Us Faster at Solving the Wrong Problems

Bio

Aarno is a co-founder and partner of VSHN - The DevOps Company in Zürich, Switzerland. He has been working on DevOps and Platform engineering using Kubernetes and open-source software for over ten years.

Sessions

• Data Sovereignty Is Built, Not Bought

Bio

Christian Schabetsberger, the world's okayest developer, is a Freelance Software Engineer & Architect from Linz, Austria with over a decade of experience. Having spend half of his life in the .NET ecosystem (amongst others), he likes to stay on the bleeding edge of technology to become the (tech-savvy) ninja he pretends to be since he is six. He is also an active community member, organising the .NET Meetup in Linz and supporting other local user groups. Furthermore he is a member of the .NET Foundation.

Sessions

• CRAcking Compliance - The EU Cyber Resilience Act

Bio

Fabrizio Lazzaretti is a Managing Consultant at Wavestone and CNCF Ambassador who bridges cutting-edge cloud-native technologies with enterprise architecture. As maintainer of the CloudEvents project and co-author of “Crafting Great APIs with Domain-Driven Design,” he brings deep expertise in event-driven architecture and microservices to complex challenges. With over ten years in software architecture, development, and DevOps, he currently drives architectural transformation in the insurance industry, bridging the gap between business and IT.

Sessions

• Stop Building AI Models. Start Building AI Products - From Demo Applause to Production Value

Bio

I was always interested in programming and playing video games. Since 2009 iam working as a professional developer and project manager. my passions include family, technology and faith.

Sessions

• Broadcasting Deployments: ORF's Journey to Bulletproof Kubernetes Releases

Bio

Constanze is an astrophysicist turned entrepreneur: she spent over 15 years designing and implementing resilient complex systems for finance and government. CS lecturer and key researcher. Created the K8s Stormcenter for Open Threat Intelligence. Her research is on improving security using modern and emerging technologies such as eBPF, WebAssembly and AI. Her vision is to create practical and achievable security implementations usable in defendable systems for a resilient society.

Sessions

• Zoom in and you shall find: Adaptive Kubernetes SOC that stays sovereign and reduces data volume

Bio

Sebastian Kister is an influential figure in enterprise transformation and a top consultant for C-Level executives. Currently running for the Governance Board at CNCF, he combines hands-on leadership with visionary insights, spearheading a Competence Center at AUDI focused on IT infrastructure. A dynamic startup professional, Sebastian has played a pivotal role in guiding products from conception to market leadership through innovative, cutting-edge technologies. He is committed to challenging the status quo, fostering a culture of innovation, and driving continuous progress within organizations. Sebastian emphasizes the distinction between mere reorganization and true transformation. He advocates for a „people-first“ approach, believing that when organizations prioritize their people, they empower them to solve complex problems. Conversely, a „process-first“ mindset often leads to mere compliance rather than genuine problem-solving.

Sessions

• From Automation to Context-Aware Delegation - How to become the 5%