How is the Kubernetes landscape changing? Insights from KubeCon London 2025

Kubernetes has moved firmly beyond the early adopter phase. What was once an experimental tool for developers is now the heart of cloud native modernization and automates the deployment, scaling, and management of modern containerized applications anywhere in hybrid IT platforms across some of the world’s most complex environments.

But how is this playing out among the user base? To find out, we surveyed 101 attendees across the tech, finance, and healthcare sectors, including developers, sysadmins, IT decision-makers, and cloud architects at the recent KubeCon London 2025 event. What emerged was a clear picture of Kubernetes entering a new phase defined by maturity, multi-cloud agility, and community-driven resilience.

Key trends shaping the adoption of Kubernetes 

• Production workloads are now Kubernetes-native

Nearly 40% of respondents now run all their production workloads on Kubernetes, with an additional 31% leveraging it for pre-production environments. This widespread deployment is a strong demonstration of Kubernetes’ evolution away from a test bed and towards an indispensable, production-ready solution. Organizations are no longer merely exploring Kubernetes; they are relying on it for mission-critical applications.

• The shift toward scalable, streamlined development

Users value Kubernetes for its ability to scale effortlessly (31%) and streamline development cycles (38%). As a result, it has become the foundation for innovation in fast-paced development environments, especially for businesses prioritizing agility, efficient resource management, and automated operations. 

• Multi-cloud strategies are gaining momentum

While on-premises infrastructure remains prevalent (51%), enterprises are increasingly shifting towards multi-cloud strategies. In addition, 39% of respondents plan to scale Kubernetes across multiple clouds, and 14% already operate across three or more cloud providers. This trend illustrates the significant demand for flexibility, resilience, and vendor neutrality – capabilities essential for organizations that must remain adaptable in the contemporary cloud ecosystem.

• The immense power of community

Kubernetes thrives on community-driven innovation, with 71% of respondents emphasizing the importance of ecosystem integration and support. Whether troubleshooting, optimizing operations, or enhancing security postures, the collaborative nature of the Kubernetes community remains critical to its adoption.

Looking to the future: balancing security, cost and complexity

As Kubernetes cements its role as core infrastructure, enterprise priorities are shifting. Security and compliance now sit firmly at the top of the agenda, with organisations refining their defenses to protect against the challenging threat landscape. At the same time, cost planning and optimization is under the spotlight. IT leaders are under pressure to scale efficiently, drive value, and justify spending without compromising performance.

Add in the operational challenges of managing Kubernetes across multiple cloud environments, and the need for robust support, architectural consistency, and cross-platform resilience becomes clear. Enterprises aren’t just adopting Kubernetes -they’re working hard to operationalize it at scale.

The future is very bright. As Kubernetes heads into its next chapter, AI is already beginning to intersect with orchestration, opening new possibilities for automation and predictive operations. However, as new tools emerge, organizations must carefully assess their return on investment. Kubernetes is no longer a question of ‘if’—it’s about continually evolving strategies in line with innovation.

We are very proud that SUSE is part of this journey, working alongside the community in many projects. With SUSE Rancher Prime – positioned “Leader” in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management – we offer an Enterprise Container Management Platform for any Kubernetes.  Thus helping customers to modernize their business and securely deploy, run‌ and manage modern workloads anywhere in their Hybrid IT platform, delivering centralized authentication, access control, observability, and built-in security.

Are you ready for your cloud native journey? We are here to help: Please get in touch if you would like to hear more.