Last updated: September 1, 2025
Code Red Newsletter #7
Hi there,
Alright, last one about KubeCon + CloudNativeCon London - pinky swear.
If your feed has been a nonstop scroll of hallway selfies, AI hot takes, and red-overalled Dash0 sightings, I get it. But now that the dust has settled and all the talks are up on YouTube, it’s time for one final (and focused) recap - complete with binge-worthy sessions and some seriously spicy insights.
No surprise here: my lens was fixed on Observability and Platform Engineering. And if these talks are any indication, the convergence is real. Let’s get into it.
Keynote: The Observability Platform Engineering Advantage: From Zero-Code to Monitoring as Code
Kasper Borg Nissen, Developer Relations Engineer at Dash0 (Spoiler alert, it’s me!)
Many teams settle for a "good enough" approach to observability, leaving significant value untapped. In my keynote, I highlight how adopting OpenTelemetry enables unified telemetry across traces, logs, and metrics, standardizing naming and simplifying data collection.
I demonstrate how platform engineers can effortlessly implement auto-instrumentation for developers using the OpenTelemetry Operator. Plus, I show how the Perses operator allows for portable and standardized dashboards - embracing monitoring-as-code.
The Art and Craft of No-touch Instrumentation
Michele Mancioppi, Head of Product at Dash0
In this technical deep-dive, Michele explores the concepts behind no-touch (or zero-code) instrumentation.
He walks through the inner workings of operators and explains how the dash0-operator leverages LD_PRELOAD and dynamic linking techniques to automatically instrument applications - achieving a runtime-independent approach similar to the Java agent. One of the pros of this approach is that it’s highly portable to other setups, such as Amazon ECS, Linux (virtual) hosts, and more. Michele also suggests this might become available upstream in the future as part of the OpenTelemetry Operator.
How To Adopt OpenTelemetry in an Enterprise Where Incumbent Vendor Tools Reign Supreme
Chris Weldon, Director, Platform Engineering at Wolters Kluwer
This is a real-world look at what it takes to move from traditional monitoring to true observability using OpenTelemetry - inside a large, vendor-heavy enterprise. Chris shares how his team evaluated backend options, built internal buy-in, and leaned into open standards to avoid lock-in.
It took a real incident to convince developers how valuable tracing can be - once the platform team found the issue in minutes, there were fewer raised eyebrows and more raised dashboards. Packed with practical advice on embedding observability experts, navigating “not my problem” culture, and surviving enterprise politics without losing your mind.
OpenTelemetry Project Update
Austin Parker (Honeycomb), Alolita Sharma (Apple), Daniel Gomez Blanco (Skyscanner), Pablo Baeyens (Datadog), Trask Stalnaker (Microsoft)
This update gives a pulse check on OpenTelemetry’s momentum - and it’s beating strong. Alolita opens with the project's scope: 80+ repos, 1,000+ contributing orgs, and growth across every signal. Daniel shares how end-user and CNCF project adoption is rising, as more frameworks and libraries bake in native OTel support.
Austin recaps project activity, celebrates that graduation prerequisites are now checked off (just waiting for TOC approval), and plugs the new OpenTelemetry Associate cert. Trask dives into semantic convention sprawl - 9 SIGs, 74 domains, and over 900 attributes - because naming things is still one of the hard problems. Pablo rounds it out with a look at the Collector’s evolution: 43 new components since KubeCon EU alone.
Operationalizing Observability: The Invisible Parts
Hazel Weakly, Nivenly Foundation
Hazel dives into the human side of observability - the messy, invisible work that no dashboard will ever show. From finding your internal champions to being brutally realistic about timelines, she shares lessons in navigating org complexity and cultural inertia. Her advice? Take baby steps, do the first mile, and don’t let “how it’s always been done” block what’s possible. A thoughtful reminder that observability is as much people and process as it is pipelines and panels.
Standardizing CI/CD Observability With OpenTelemetry: Insights From the CI/CD Observability SIG
Dotan Horovits, OpenObservability Talks & Adriel Perkins, Liatrio
Dotan and Adriel share insights from the CI/CD Observability SIG on making pipeline observability less ad hoc and more actionable. They walk through efforts to standardize telemetry across CI/CD systems - like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and ArgoCD - using OpenTelemetry.
Expect practical guidance on defining semantic conventions, modeling pipeline stages, and creating signal-rich spans for better debugging and analysis. Think of it as a blueprint for turning opaque CI logs into structured, traceable gold.
Starting and Scaling a Platform Engineering Team
Camille Fournier & Ian Nowland
Camille and Ian explore what it really takes to build a platform engineering team that lasts. They share lessons on how to earn trust, avoid becoming a ticket factory, and keep teams aligned with developer needs. From org structure to stakeholder buy-in, the talk covers both the strategy and the scars behind building platforms as products. A great primer for anyone scaling platform efforts beyond a few scripts and a Slack channel.
Choice cuts
Finally, something not from KubeCon. These are fresh drops that didn’t come with a badge or a branded tote bag - just solid insights, straight from the trenches.
Value-Driven Observability: Aligning Data with Business Impact
Andrew Mallaband
Andrew lays out a compelling blueprint for observability that actually moves the business needle. He makes the case for intent-driven observability—where you monitor what matters (user journeys, business flows), not just what’s easy to instrument.
From OpenTelemetry and eBPF to AI-driven insights and telemetry pipelines, this article connects the dots between SLOs, service reliability, and executive-level ROI. Required reading if you're tired of dashboards that generate cost, not clarity.
Code RED Podcast: Debugging the Future: How Lumigo Modernizes Developer Observability with Erez Berkner
In this episode, Erez unpacks what “developer-first observability” really means in the age of serverless, distributed tracing, and lightning-fast debugging.
Mirko and Erez talk cold starts, context propagation, and the joy of not needing to grep through logs for half a day. If you’ve ever screamed into the void trying to track down an error in production, this one’s for you.
See You in Two Weeks
That’s a wrap on our deep dive into KubeCon+CloudNativeCon EU 2025. From zero-code instrumentation and semantic chaos, to platform scaling strategies and cold-start debugging war stories - we’ve covered a lot of ground over the last few issues.
This is the final newsletter in our KubeCon EU series, but the journey doesn’t stop here. Observability is still evolving. Platform engineering is getting sharper. And OpenTelemetry? It’s not just maturing - it’s becoming the default.
I will be back in two weeks with fresh insights, new stories, and fewer mentions of London.
Until then, keep tracing the signals.
Kasper, out!
