Kubernetes Gets An Ai Conformance Program — And Vmware Is Already On Board

As organizations push AI workloads into production, they’re moving into a acquainted struggle: fragmentation. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s recently launched Certified Kubernetes AI Conformance Program, announced astatine KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025, addresses nan problem of AI’s galore divergent platforms, devices and standards.

Longtime CNCF protagonist and Kubernetes contributor VMware by Broadcom besides announced that its vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) is certified arsenic 1 of nan first conformant platforms for nan caller AI standard.

In this On nan Road section of The New Stack Makers recorded astatine KubeCon successful Atlanta, TNS Founder and Publisher Alex Williams discussed these caller open, community-defined standards for moving AI workloads connected Kubernetes. He was joined by Broadcom’s Dilpreet Bindra, elder head of engineering, and Himanshu Singh, head of merchandise marketing.

Bringing Order to AI Tooling Chaos

Bindra sees nan caller conformance programme arsenic nan CNCF applying lessons learned from Kubernetes’ early days.

“There’s a batch of muddiness astir delving into AI tooling,” he noted. “With nan AI conformance program, nan CNCF is doing arsenic they did pinch Kubernetes successful nan beginning, making judge that applications written connected apical of these devices tin beryllium utilized crossed aggregate different platforms.”

Conformance, Singh added, “at its bosom is nan thought of portability.” Platform vendors, infrastructure teams, endeavor AI practitioners and unfastened root contributors successful Kubernetes each request a communal and interoperable foundation, he continued. “If I’m moving connected a nationalist unreality and want to move my exertion to a backstage cloud, aliases vice versa, conformance intends I should beryllium capable to return my exertion wherever it’s champion suited pinch minimal friction.”

Running Kubernetes APIs Directly Against Your Infrastructure

VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service is nan CNCF-certified Kubernetes runtime that ships arsenic portion of VMware Cloud Foundation. What makes VKS distinctive, Bindra said, is really profoundly it integrates pinch nan underlying vSphere level alternatively than adding different abstraction layer. It’s VMware’s architected VKS to usage Kubernetes APIs straight against nan infrastructure.

“Everything is simply a YAML document, each your objects,” Bindra said. “This intends VMs, pods, persistent volumes and Kubernetes clusters themselves tin each beryllium managed declaratively done Kubernetes APIs and tooling for illustration Argo CD.”

To thief pinch this, the latest VKS release includes a caller add-on guidance strategy that lets users negociate extensions crossed each their VKS clusters, whether pre-packaged components aliases third-party tools.

Why Kubernetes Maturity Matters for AI

All of this is possible, Singh and Bindra agreed, because Kubernetes itself has go an unshakeable foundation. That stableness is what’s enabling enterprises to spot Kubernetes pinch accumulation AI workloads. It’s besides why Broadcom has been doubling down support for foundational projects for illustration Cluster API and etcd, components that make reliable, scalable Kubernetes possible.

“A batch much users and applications and enterprises now afloat spot nan technology,” Bindra said. “Our position is that astir of your exertion improvement is going to beryllium done utilizing Kubernetes successful nan future.”

Singh added, “You want nan exertion to mature, you want nan level to mature, and past nan organization tin support building to continually widen it and return things to a caller level.”

“And, astatine this constituent successful time,” he concluded, “AI is nan caller level.”

For nan afloat speech — including really VMware is utilizing Kubernetes APIs to springiness virtual machines and containers adjacent footing, and why nan institution conscionable open-sourced its etcd tooling — cheque retired nan complete interview.

Group Created pinch Sketch.