From Cloud Racks to Control Cabinets: Operating Kubernetes on Edge Devices

Cloud‑native is routine in the cloud—but how do you run that routine inside control cabinets on edge devices? This talk focuses on operating Kubernetes on edge devices in a vendor‑neutral way. We’ll map an edge‑grade reference path from code to fleet‑level rollout and observability—using open standards and open source rather than tool‑specific implementations. You’ll see how to package and ship modular workloads (e.g., PLC/HMI/DCS as examples) onto heterogeneous cabinet hardware, and how to run them with staged deployments, rollback patterns, and uniform telemetry. We’ll also show how the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance – Software Defined Automation (SDA) initiative frames the journey from PoC to scale, and how Margo (Linux Foundation) clarifies device roles, application packaging and a desired‑state model that unlocks interoperable edge fleets. The outcome is a practical checklist and set of guardrails for constrained devices, intermittent networks, and autonomous operation—so teams can move beyond lab demos and run real workloads at the edge with Kubernetes, without vendor lock‑in.