Unleashing the Kernel With eBPF

eBPF is a kernel technology that is enabling a new generation of high-performance, low-overhead tools for networking, security and observability. This talk will use demos and examples to explain how it works, and why the ability to customize the kernel’s behavior leads to such powerful and efficient capabilities. You’ll leave this talk understanding why you should be using eBPF-based infrastructure tools in your organization! 

Interview:

What's the focus of your work these days?

Since I joined Isovalent three years ago I’ve been lucky enough to immerse myself in the world of eBPF, working alongside colleagues who really pioneered this technology. Our team originated the Cilium open source project for network connectivity, security and observability. I’m also involved in the CNCF Governing Board, and on the board of OpenUK. 

What's the motivation for your talk at QCon London 2024?

eBPF has received a lot of attention in the last couple of years, because it’s such a powerful platform for building efficient infrastructure tools for observing and securing applications running on Linux. 

How would you describe your main persona and target audience for this session?

The tools I’ll be discussing will be of interest to networking, security, or platform teams who are responsible for the infrastructure that underpins their organization’s deployments, but I think the concept of eBPF can appeal to any engineer who is interested in how things work - especially if you like to see demos to make concepts more concrete! 

Is there anything specific that you'd like people to walk away with after watching your session?

I hope that the audience will leave my talk inspired to try some eBPF-based tools for powerful and incredibly low-priced overhead functionality implemented within the kernel.


Speaker

Liz Rice

Chief Open Source Officer @Isovalent

Liz Rice is Chief Open Source Officer with eBPF specialists Isovalent, creators of the Cilium cloud native networking, security and observability project. She is the author of Container Security, and Learning eBPF, both published by O'Reilly, and she sits on the CNCF Governing Board, and on the Board of OpenUK. She was Chair of the CNCF's Technical Oversight Committee in 2019-2022, and Co-Chair of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in 2018.

She has a wealth of software development, team, and product management experience from working on network protocols and distributed systems, and in digital technology sectors such as VOD, music, and VoIP. When not writing code, or talking about it, Liz loves riding bikes in places with better weather than her native London, competing in virtual races on Zwift, and making music under the pseudonym Insider Nine.

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Date

Tuesday Apr 9 / 01:35PM BST ( 50 minutes )

Location

Mountbatten (6th Fl.)

Topics

ebpf cloud native

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