OpenShift Commons Gathering Co-located Alongside KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America
November 10, 2025 | 7:00 AM–2:30 PM EST | Atlanta, Georgia
Where users, partners, customers, contributors and upstream project leads come together to collaborate and work together across the OpenShift Cloud Native ecosystem.
Event Overview
This in person OpenShift Commons Gathering will be held on November 10th live in Atlanta, GA and co-located with CNCF's KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA
This Gathering will focus on talks from and by Cloud Native practioners with production deployments sharing their use cases, insights into their workloads and lessons learned along the way. Topics covered during this Gathering include hybrid cloud infrastructure, cloud-native development, and new Emerging technology initiatives.
Schedule
Code of Conduct: We follow both the Red Hat Event Terms and Conditions and the Code of Conduct of other events such as KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. Similarly we are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at all of our events, whether they are held in person or virtually. All event participants, whether they are attending an in-person event or a virtual event, are expected to behave in accordance with professional standards, with both this Code of Conduct as well as their respective employer's policies governing appropriate workplace behavior and applicable laws.
COVID-19 Health + Safety Information: We are committed to our attendee's health and safety and follow the Healthy and Safety policies of the events we are co-located with or by default those of the CNCF.
Please Note: All sessions are first come, first seated. Workshops and roundtables have limited capacity. Workshops are interactive and hands-on; attendees must bring their own laptop to participate.
See sessions from previous gatherings
- 7:00 AM
- Registration, Networking & Coffee Service
- 8:00 AM
- Kickoff and Keynote - Building an Adaptable Enterprise with Red Hat OpenShift Amy Marrich (Red Hat)Ju Lim (Red Hat)Michael Foster (Red Hat)
- 8:45 AM
- UW-Madison: Enterprise Observability for OpenShift on a University Budget Ryan Etten (Red Hat)Cory Sherman (University of Wisconsin)
- 9:15 AM
- Modernizing Developer Experience with OpenShift DevSpaces at Dell Technologies Joseph Kanjirathinkal (Dell Technologies)
- 9:45 AM
- Break
- 10:00 AM
- OpenShift at Scale: The Morgan Stanley Blueprint Oscar Sumano (Morgan Stanley)Fernando Fraga Rodrigues (Morgan Stanley)Arvin Amirian (Red Hat)
- 10:30 AM
- Expansion of Enterprise Kubernetes Joseph McConnell (Northrop Grumman)Randy Ellefson (Northrup Grumman)
- 11:00 AM
- Super Hero Awards Debbie Margulies (Red Hat)
- 11:15 AM
- Break
- 11:30 AM
- GitOps Increasing the Velocity of Customer Value and Security Brian Cook (Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation)
- 12:00 PM
- Scaling Innovation: How Banco do Brasil accelerates business with platform engineering and hyper automation in a hybrid, multi-cloud world. Welton Danyel Felipe (Banco do Brasil)Gustavo Fiuza (Banco do Brasil)
- 12:30 PM
- AMA and the Grab and go lunch opens
- 1:00 PM
- Round Tables and Grab and go lunch
- 1:30 PM
- Get hands-on with storage and backup for OpenShift Virtualization - room: Atlanta 3 Michael St-Jean (Red Hat)Eric Shanks (Pure Storage)
- 1:30 PM
- Hands-On with RAFT: Fine-Tuning LLMs on OpenShift AI - room: Atlanta 1 Alireza Rahmani (Red Hat)
Speakers

Alireza RahmaniSenior Cloud Success Architect
Red Hat
Intro
Alireza Rahmani is a Senior Cloud Success Architect at Red Hat and a Doctoral Engineer candidate at Penn State University, specializing in AI/ML optimization, cloud computing, and CNCF projects. A dedicated professor and open-source advocate, he bridges academia and industry, empowering future tech leaders through education and innovation.
Amy MarrichPrincipal Technical Marketing Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Amy is a Principal Technical Marketing Manager at Red Hat specializing in OpenStack. She currently serves as the Chair of the CentOS Project, as Vice-Chair of the Open Infrastructure Foundation Board of Directors and on the CHAOSS Project Governing Board. In addition she serves on the OpenStack Technical Committee, as chair of the OpenInfra Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, and contributes to several OpenStack projects, and previously served as the chair of the OpenStack User Committee.
Arvin AmirianSenior Principal Consultant
Red Hat
Intro
Arvin has been a Red Hat consultant for over 6 years specializing in Kubernetes Infrastructure. He has been helping customers create and implement Kubernetes architectures to meet stringent requirement in the Financial Services vertical.
Brian CookDirector Kubernetes Platform, CISSP
Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation
Intro
With over 3 years as Director of Kubernetes Platform Engineering and 7 years of Kubernetes expertise, Brian Cook specializes in cloud-native operations, infrastructure, automation, and Kubernetes Security. A strong advocate for Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, and Policy-as-Code, Brian helps organizations build secure, scalable, and resilient platforms. Passionate about innovation and collaboration, Brian also mentors teams and bridges the gap between security and cloud-native technologies to tackle the complex challenges of today.
Cory ShermanLead DevOps Engineer
University of Wisconsin
Intro
Cory has spent 18 years working in federally regulated environments. 6 years supporting Research at UW. He is a huge advocate for CNCF technologies and the leading advocate for Kubernetes on campus. I eat sleep and breath all things Kubernetes. This is my favorite technology stack I have ever come across, love the community, and am happy to have the privilege to be a part of it.
Debbie MarguliesPrincipal Product Marketing Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Debbie Margulies is currently a Principal Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat. She brings more than two decades of experience in top tech and cybersecurity firms. Her expertise spans marketing strategy, operational excellence, and program leadership, with a strong background in shaping go-to-market programs for technology companies.
Eric ShanksPrincipal Technical Marketing Engineer
Pure Storage
Intro
Eric is an IT Professional with a diverse background as a Data Center Engineer, Consultant, and Technical Marketer bringing over 20 years of experience in driving technical excellence.
Fernando Fraga RodriguesPlatform Engineer
Morgan Stanley

Gustavo FiuzaIT manager
Banco do Brasil
Intro
With over 20 years of experience in technology, I holds a bachelor degree in Mathematics and Business Administration, and MBA in Cloud Solutions Engineering and Architecture. Over the past 6 years, I have worked with cloud computing at Banco do Brasil, where I had the opportunity to work in areas such as training, support and moderation of developer communities. Currently, I lead three teams focused on simplifying the cloud platform for professionals and encouraging the adoption of best practices, ensuring the scalability and governance of solutions.
Joseph KanjirathinkalDevOps Manager, Dell ISG Developer Platform Services
Dell Technologies
Intro
Joseph Kanjirathinkal is a cloud native solutions expert and Manager of Developer Platform Services at Dell Technologies. He and his team specialize in architecting and validating enterprise-grade application platform services, ensuring developers can confidently run their most critical containerized applications. His primary focus is on delivering performance, resilience, scalability, and operational efficiency to enable reliable private cloud services for Dells Infrastructure Solutions Group.
Joseph McConnellTech Fellow/Infrastructure Automation Manager
Northrop Grumman
Intro
With 20 years of experience, Joe McConnell, is a distinguished Tech Fellow at Northrop Grumman, currently charged with leading enterprise-scale implementation of modern infrastructures, including platforms for developing and hosting web applications.
Ju LimSenior Manager, OpenShift Product Manager
Red Hat
Intro
Ju Lim is a Senior Manager, OpenShift Product Management and Distinguished Engineer. She works on the core Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform for hybrid and multi-cloud environments to enable customers to run Red Hat OpenShift anywhere. Ju leads the product management teams responsible for installation, updates, provider integration, and cloud infrastructure.
Michael FosterPrincipal Product Marketing Manager
Red Hat

Michael St-JeanGlobal Partner Business Executive
Red Hat
Intro
Michael St-Jean collaborates with partners across Red Hats partner ecosystem to develop solutions and cross-route initiatives that deliver business value for organizations around the world. For more than 2 decades, Michael has worked with cross-functional teams to help organizations solve complex business challenges with innovative technology solutions and strategies.
Oscar Sumano
Morgan Stanley

Randy EllefsonEnterprise Management Architect
Northrup Grumman

Ryan EttenSenior Architect and Team Lead
Red Hat
Intro
Ryan Etten is a passionate contributor to the open-source ecosystem and the founder of the CNCF community group in Madison, Wisconsin. As a Senior Architect and Red Hat Certified OpenShift Architect, he brings his real-world experience with Kubernetes, GitOps, and Zero Trust security to community initiatives, including his work with the CNCF TAG Security and the Certified GitOps Associate (CGOA) exam. At Red Hat, he leads a team focused on cloud-native adoption.
Welton Danyel FelipeDevops Enginner
Banco do Brasil
Intro
With 25 years of experience in IT and Telecommunications, and nearly a decade dedicated to cloud computing, DevOps, and Kubernetes, I currently serve as a technical leader focused on building scalable, automated, and resilient infrastructure solutions.Venue
November 10, 2025 | 7:00 AM–2:30 PM EST
Courtland Grand Hotel
165 Courtland St NE, Atlanta, GA 30303
Atlanta, Georgia