SUSE

In this episode ofThe New Stack Makers,Pete Smailsoutlines howSUSEis evolving from its Linux roots into an AI-native infrastructure platform. Speaking atKubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026, Smails explains the company’s strategy to unify AI, containers and virtual machines on a single open, enterprise-ready foundation. Central to this isSUSE Rancher Prime, which enables consistent orchestration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, alongsideSUSE Virtualizationfor modernizing legacy systems. A key innovation is “Liz,” a context-aware AI agent embedded in Rancher Prime that helps engineers identify vulnerabilities, troubleshoot deployments and interact with infrastructure using natural language. Unlike generic AI tools, Liz understands real-time cluster states and uses Model Context Protocol to deliver actionable insights. Smails emphasizes developer experience as critical to adoption, highlighting Rancher Developer Access for simplified local Kubernetes workflows. Overall, SUSE aims to deliver secure, automated infrastructure that reduces complexity while accelerating cloud-native and AI adoption. Learn more from The New Stack around the latest around SUSE:  SUSE Displays Enhanced Enterprise Linux at SECESSION SUSE Launches a Sovereign Premium Support Service for EU Customers Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.

Pete Smails

SUSE

Divya Mohan is a Technical Writer with SUSE, a CNCF Ambassador, co-chair of Kubernetes SIG Docs, and a mentor to new contributors. Learn how her love of language and learning led her from production support to the core of the community. Do you have something cool to share? Some questions? Let us know: web: kubernetespodcast.com mail: kubernetespodcast@google.com twitter: @kubernetespod News of the week Volcano moves to incubation stage in CNCF Nephio Automating cloud native networks Announcement press release Improving secure software supply chain by Asra Ali and Laurent Simon, Google Open Source Security Team Docker SBOM When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Anchore Talos Linux 1.0 What's new in Talos 1.0 Episode 159, with Andrew Rynhard Grafana raises Series D Tanzu Application Platform v1.1 Kubernetes 1.24 delayed But seriously, don't worry about the Dockershim Ever Forward also delayed Links from the interview From zero to WIP: How I transitioned from being a sys admin working on legacy middleware to sailing the cloud native seas Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam; just 3 of the 22 scheduled languages of India IGATE HSBC Middleware Episode 175, with Bruno Andrade SIG Docs Kubernetes Community Days Bengaluru SIG Contributor Experience Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) Season of Docs Summer of Code How to contribute to Kubernetes docs Arsh Sharma LitmusChaos, founded by Uma Mukkara and Karthik Satchitanand Divya joins SUSE Hayden Barnes The Friday Four Divya's writing on WebAssembly Divya Mohan on Twitter

Divya Mohan

Technical Writer

SUSE

We're back for 2022 with a look at Rancher Desktop, which recently hit 1.0. Its creator, Matt Farina, is today's guest. Matt is a Distinguished Engineer at SUSE, was a founding chair of Kubernetes SIG Apps, and was recently appointed to the CNCF TOC. Do you have something cool to share? Some questions? Let us know: web: kubernetespodcast.com mail: kubernetespodcast@google.com twitter: @kubernetespod News of the week Kubernetes: The Documentary Sysdig Cloud Native Security and Usage Report Rancher Desktop 1.0 Microshift from Red Hat Docker's second fiscal year Solo announces Bumblebee Istio 1.13 IstioCon announcement Google Cloud Deploy GA GKE Cost Optimization Insights GA Anthos Service Mesh on GKE Autopilot cluster OpenMetrics moves to Incubation phase Episode 37, with Richard Hartmann CNCF archives the OpenTracing project Kubernetes policy management paper CNCF 2021 survey results Links from the interview Matt Farina General Dynamics Land Systems Drupal Palintir (not that one) HP donates patents to support Linux HP acquires Stackato Cloud Foundry distribution CNCF Landscape Or not Helm SIG Apps Artifact Hub) What is the Artifact Hub? Rancher Labs acquired by SUSE Episode 57, with Darren Shepherd Open source from SUSE/Rancher Rio Longhorn Epinio Kubewarden Rancher Desktop Announcement 1.0 release Slashes kube-solo nerdctl k3s and k3d Matt Farina joins the CNCF TOC Cloud Native Podcast Episode 102, with Matt Butcher Matt Farina on Twitter

Matt Farina

Distinguished Engineer

SUSE

Learn all about what's new in today's Kubernetes 1.23 with its release team lead, Rey Lejano. Rey is a Field Engineer at SUSE/Rancher Labs, and a contributor to the Docs, Release and Security SIGs. Long time listener Adam also drops by to ask Craig what's been happening with the hiatus. Do you have something cool to share? Some questions? Let us know: web: kubernetespodcast.com mail: kubernetespodcast@google.com twitter: @kubernetespod Chatter of the week Ted Lasso Filming locations Knative applies to become a CNCF project Links from the interview African clawed frog Cross-fertilization and structural comparison of egg extracellular matrix glycoproteins from Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis ITIL RX-M 1.18 release team 1.23 release team Kubernetes 1.23: The Next Frontier Odd numbered Star Trek movies Star Trek V: The Final Frontier SIG Release Charter Enhancements: Dual stack IPv4/IPv6 - Stable Pod security admission - Beta TTL After Finished Controller - Stable Auto delete PVCs created by StatefulSets - Alpha Skip Volume Ownership Change - Stable Generic Ephemeral Inline Volumes CronJobs Deprecation of FlexVolumes Deprecation of klog flags HorizontalPodAutoscaler v2 API - Stable Ephemeral containers - Beta kubectl events improvements - Alpha Kubelet CRI support - Beta 1.22 interview with Savitha Raghunathan 1.24 lead: James Laverack Kubernetes Contributor Celebration Rey Lejano on Twitter

Rey Lejano

Field Engineer

SUSE