Deploying Kubernetes in a bank was the easy part, as Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin explained at KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe. The hard part was building the culture to support a cloud-native platform. "Community of practice, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership" were key to getting teams to adopt the platform, they said. Teams tried out new approaches, kept what worked, and improved the platform from the bottom up, according to InfoQ's report on their talk.
What happened
In their talk at KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe, Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin from a large bank described their journey to adopt Kubernetes and build a culture to support it. They deployed Kubernetes to run production workloads, but found that the hard part was changing the culture of the organization. They had to build a community of practice, share knowledge, establish rituals, and foster a sense of ownership across teams.
The bank started by creating a Kubernetes working group with representatives from different teams. This group was responsible for defining best practices, creating documentation, and providing training to the rest of the organization. They also established regular meetings to share knowledge and discuss challenges.
To foster a sense of ownership, they encouraged teams to try out new things and experiment with Kubernetes. If something worked, they would keep it and improve it. If it didn't work, they would learn from it and try something else. This bottom-up approach helped to spread knowledge and best practices throughout the organization.
They also established rituals to help reinforce the new culture. For example, they started holding regular "Kubernetes Fridays" where teams would come together to work on Kubernetes-related tasks and share knowledge. They also created a "Kubernetes dashboard" to provide visibility into the health and performance of their Kubernetes clusters.
The bank's journey to adopt Kubernetes and build a culture to support it is an example of how open source can earn trust by running real workloads. By building a community of practice, sharing knowledge, establishing rituals, and fostering a sense of ownership, they were able to change the culture of the organization and successfully deploy Kubernetes in production.
python from journaltwo import JournalTwo post = JournalTwo( lede="In banking, open source can earn trust by running real workloads, as Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin explained in their talk Building Cloud Native Culture in a Bank at KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe.", what_happened=""" Deploying Kubernetes in a bank was the easy part, but building a culture to support it was the hard part. A culture of community, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership is essential for the successful adoption and maturation of a Kubernetes-based platform. This involves creating a community of practice where teams can try out new ideas, keep what works, and continuously improve. By doing so, the bank can improve its agility, reduce costs, and better serve its customers. This approach can also help to attract and retain top talent who are enthusiastic about working with cutting-edge technologies. """, why_it_matters=""" Why it matters Deploying Kubernetes in a bank was the easy part, but building a culture to support it was the hard part. A culture of community, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership is essential for the successful adoption and maturation of a Kubernetes-based platform. This involves creating a community of practice where teams can try out new ideas, keep what works, and continuously improve. By doing so, the bank can improve its agility, reduce costs, and better serve its customers. This approach can also help to attract and retain top talent who are enthusiastic about working with cutting-edge technologies. Establishing this culture requires a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Top-down, the bank's leadership needs to set the vision and provide the necessary resources and support. Bottom-up, teams need to be empowered to experiment, learn from their failures, and share their successes with each other. This collaborative approach can help to break down silos and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The benefits of this approach are significant. By embracing a culture of community, shared knowledge, rituals, and ownership, the bank can improve its agility, reduce costs, and better serve its customers. This approach can also help to attract and retain top talent who are enthusiastic about working with cutting-edge technologies. Ultimately, this can give the bank a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive industry. """, what_to_do=""" To establish this culture, the bank's leadership needs to set the vision and provide the necessary resources and support. Teams need to be empowered to experiment, learn from their failures, and share their successes with each other. This collaborative approach can help to break down silos and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. """, two_ti_lens=""" From a Two-Tier IT perspective, this approach can help to improve the agility and responsiveness of the IT organization. By empowering teams to experiment and learn from their failures, the IT organization can become more agile and responsive to changing business needs. """, sources=""" - Ben Linders, "Building a Culture for a Kubernetes-Based Platform in a Bank," InfoQ, November 5, 2026, https://www.infoq.com/news/2026/11/culture-kubernetes-bank/. """ ) print(post.render())What to do
- Adopt a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. Encourage teams to try new things, keep what works, and iterate on their practices.
- Build a community of practice around Kubernetes and other cloud native technologies. Facilitate knowledge sharing, learning, and collaboration across teams.
- Establish rituals and ceremonies to reinforce shared values and practices. This could include regular meetings, demos, retrospectives, and knowledge sessions.
- Clarify roles and responsibilities. Ensure there is clear ownership for different aspects of the platform and its lifecycle.
- Measure and improve the quality and reliability of the platform over time. Use metrics and feedback loops to drive continuous optimization.
2TI lens
Culture wins when teams own the platform, not just the applications. Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin note that adopting Kubernetes was easy; building the community to support it was the real work. We see this in our own platforms where developers need safe spaces to experiment. Our PaaS models often function this way, letting engineers focus on value rather than infrastructure overhead. When you give people the tools to build and the trust to fail, they find the rhythm. That rhythm is what sustains cloud native work in complex environments like finance. We structure these spaces to ensure ownership remains with the teams.
Sources
The primary source for this article is a news post titled "Building a Culture for a Kubernetes-Based Platform in a Bank" published on InfoQ on November 5, 2026. The article discusses the challenges and successes of deploying Kubernetes in a bank setting, with a focus on the importance of building a culture that supports the platform. Marcy Paramonova and Stéphane Cusin presented their experiences at KubeCon & CloudNativeCon Europe. The article was written by Ben Linders.