Incubation

CloudNativePG is now a CNCF Incubating project, and it is a long way from the days when running PostgreSQL in Kubernetes was called an anti-pattern. This is a personal look at the road that led here: a cloud native initiative started at 2ndQuadrant in 2019, its quality-first mindset, the long-term support of EDB after the acquisition and the open sourcing of the project, a rejected Sandbox application in 2022 and the decision we took at KubeCon Atlanta. It also explains what Incubation means for PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, how the project governance and maintainer team are evolving, and our plan to apply for Graduation in 2027.

This blog post recaps my eventful participation in KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025 in Atlanta, highlighting the key decision by maintainers to formally apply for CNCF Incubation for the CloudNativePG operator. I had the pleasure of delivering three presentations: a CNPG Lightning Talk focused on community contribution; a deep-dive with Yoshiyuki Tabata on implementing modern PostgreSQL authorisation using Keycloak and OAuth for robust database security; and a session with Jeremy Schneider introducing the new quorum-based consistency feature in CNPG 1.28 for safer cluster reconfigurations. Links to the videos of all three talks are shared within the full article.

2024 was a transformative year for CloudNativePG, marked by significant contributions to the Kubernetes ecosystem, increased adoption, and a growing community. This article reflects on key milestones, including the integration of advanced Kubernetes features, conference highlights, and personal insights, while looking ahead to the opportunities awaiting PostgreSQL in the cloud-native era.