From Metal To Apps: LinkedIn’s Kubernetes-based Compute Platform - Ahmet Alp Balkan & Ronak Nathani
Ahmet Alp Balkan, Ronak Nathani
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 · Session
This talk, "From Metal To Apps: LinkedIn’s Kubernetes-based Compute Platform," presented by Ahmet Alp Balkan and Ronak Nathani from LinkedIn's central compute team, delves into the intricate architecture and operational strategies behind running one of the world's largest **Kubernetes** deployments on bare metal. It highlights how LinkedIn has heavily extended and customized Kubernetes to meet the demands of its massive scale, serving over a billion members with thousands of services and millions of containers across half a million physical servers. The presentation offers a unique perspective on enterprise-grade Kubernetes adoption, particularly for organizations operating their own data centers without reliance on public cloud providers.
AI review
This isn't your average "we use Kubernetes" vendor fluff. LinkedIn's deep dive into their bare-metal, custom-built compute platform for over a billion members is a masterclass in extreme-scale engineering. They've not just adopted Kubernetes; they've surgically integrated it into a colossal, pre-existing infrastructure, demonstrating a pragmatic, no-bullshit approach to solving real-world problems at a scale few others experience.