A Week of Mile High Open Source Collaboration

Posted: May 5th, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Technology | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

For the first time, Red Hat Summit and AnsibleFest, the premier Open Source event, moves away from one of the coastal cities of the United States and ascends to the mile-high city of Denver Colorado and the Denver Convention Center. For me, personally, I am excited about venturing into somewhat uncharted territory in this new venue city.

The technology industry embodies similar themes as well. As new technologies emerge, we are enamored about the possibilities and experimentation is the name of the game — and what better way to do so than in Open Source. We are experiencing an AI revolution where it is becoming a player in almost every industry vertical. AI is being integrated into products and solutions to be able to realize the benefits that the technology can bring. There is a certain buzz surrounding AI and you can bet that AI will be front and center at the Summit this year as it has with other industry events. Of course, I too am looking forward to hearing how Red Hat customers see AI helping transform their organization so that it can help realize the benefits that the technology. These benefits can then be shared more broadly in true Open Source fashion.

This year, I have the honor to participate once again at Red Hat Summit and will take part in several different sessions throughout the week. Each day, will undoubtedly be action packed and if any of the following sessions are of interest to you, I encourage you to join in:

OpenShift Commons SIG Security at Community Day

Monday May 6 – 1:30pm-3:30pm MDT – Colorado Convention Center Room Room 604

For the first time, the communities of RHEL, Ansible and OpenShift will come together for a day of collaboration on Monday May 6th, one day prior to the kickoff of Red Hat Summit. Associated with this event, Andy Braren, principal software engineer, Sean Rickerd, Principal Product Manager, and I will be holding a session sponsored by the OpenShift Commons Security Special Interest Group (SIG) focused on the many different aspects of Security within OpenShift. From the infrastructure supporting the platform to each and every application, security plays a pivotal role. However, every user and organization adopting OpenShift manages security in their own way. Together, we can not only learn from others, but most importantly, develop approaches to make our environments more secure.

This session will bring like minded individuals concerned with securing OpenShift and the many different principles, tools and methodologies for a series of collaborative discussions in a roundtable format. Learn from other, share stories and collaborate. This will be a can’t miss session for anyone interested in OpenShift security and especially those who have a desire to learn from others.

Click here to learn more about the session and register!

Red Hat TV – OpenShift Virtualization and Ansible

Red Hat TV is Red Hat’s streaming platform that features the latest technology trends from Red Hat partners, customers and experts. During Red Hat Summit week, Alan Cowles, Principal Product Manager, and I will demonstrate the deep integration between Ansible and OpenShift Virtualization that enables end users to leverage the benefits of Ansible Automation in a new way. The entire lifecycle of Virtual Machines, from initial deployment, configuration and day-2 management, can be automated using many of the same tools and approaches that users of Ansible have become accustomed to. In addition, Ansible can also be used to simplify the migration of virtual machine into OpenShift from other environments, building upon the capabilities within the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV).

While this session will not be streamed live from the event, the content will be made available at a later time on the Red Hat TV platform.

Platform Engineering Breakfast

Wednesday May 8 – 7:00am-8:00am MDT – Colorado Convention Center Rooms 109/111

Have a craving for Platform Engineering (PE)? Start the 2nd full day of Red Hat Summit and join various Red Hat experts and Red Hat customers who have an interest in growing trend of Platform Engineering to develop toolchains and workflows that can be offered as a product to developer teams. These roundtable based sessions will encourage conversations and collaboration to hear how users and organizations have implemented the concepts surrounding Platform Engineering including the tools and methodologies to understand what has worked well and what hasn’t. As a maintainer of a popular Developer Portal, Backstage (the upstream project of Red Hat Developer Hub), I work with the community to build tools that enable Platform Engineers to provide the best experience possible for their users.

Qualm your morning hunger and participate in what I am sure will only make you hungry for more!

This breakfast is ancillary to Red Hat Summit, so to take part including learning more and registry, click here.

Java Integration with the Sigstore and Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer Ecosystem Lightning Talk

Thursday May 9 – 8:30am-8:50am MDT – Colorado Convention Center Summit Discovery Theater 2

The final session that I will be participating in during Red Hat Summit week is the presentation that I am most excited about, a lightning talk on “Software signing and verification with Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer and Sigstore in the Java ecosystem”. Not to diminish any of the prior sessions, but one of the Open Source projects where I have an active role is Sigstore. The goal of the Sigstore project is to provide an ecosystem of tools that can be used to strengthen the security posture of software by simplifying the process for signing and verifying content. Applying digital signatures can be challenging and the goal of the Sigstore project is to provide end users with the tools they need to strengthen their software supply chain. In addition to the upstream project, I also have an active role within the Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer team, Red Hat’s distribution of the Sigstore project, to ensure that the best experience possible is attained by our customers.

One of the ways that assets from the Sigstore project can be used is within Java based applications. Java remains near and dear to my heart and I will be speaking in a lightning talk format to share how Java applications can take advantage of the tools provided by the Sigstore project as well as how the Java ecosystem plays a role within the project. This fast-paced session will immerse attendees into the various Sigstore components, their role, and how they can be used by Java applications. No lightning talk would be complete without a demo and many of the assets the are demonstrated will be made available afterward so that attendees can use them in their own environment.

Click here to learn more about the session and to register!

Don’t Miss out on all the fun!

In addition to the aforementioned sessions, I’ll also be roaming around the Red Hat Services booth which is located in the Expo hall where you can not only find members from the Red Hat Consulting team, but also connect with Red Hat Technical Account Manager and Red Hat Training teams. Meet the experts, learn about training opportunities, engage in a Walk the Walls, and don’t miss the Escape Room.

There’s just so much going on during the week of Red Hat Summit and AnsibleFest that you do not want to miss out. To learn more about Red Hat Summit, AnsibleFest and all of the other activities, click here.

Hope to see you in Denver!