"Groupe SNCF,a major railway operator, has successfully migrated from traditional VM-based Kubernetes deployments to a cloud-native platform built on Talos OS and OpenStack, addressing significant operational challenges while navigating complex organizational change. After his talk at TalosCon 2025, InfoQ interviewed Thomas Comtet, senior staff engineer, about this migration. The organization's Kubernetes journey began in a highly restrictive DMZ landing zone with limited services and mandatory Virtual Machine (VM) usage."
"This initial implementation, built from scratch on existing VMs, became what the team described as a "monster" that was extremely difficult to maintain and operate. When the project expanded to a more traditional intranet zone with standard VLANs and services, the team took a fundamentally different approach. Rather than simply deploying another Kubernetes distribution, they architected a comprehensive cloud-native platform addressing all gravitational concerns: networking, load balancing, storage, and operations."
"The solution combined OpenStack as the private cloud foundation with Talos OS as the Kubernetes operating system. This architecture provided the automation capabilities needed for dynamic storage provisioning, load balancing, and network subnet manipulation from day one. The most significant hurdles were organizational rather than technical. Introducing cloud-native concepts to teams accustomed to traditional IT operations required a fundamental shift in mindset. Legacy teams excelled at scripting, ticket-based workflows, and reactive operations, but cloud-native practices emphasized immutable infrastructure, GitOps, and atomic rollbacks."
Groupe SNCF's Kubernetes initiative began in a restrictive DMZ with limited services and mandatory Virtual Machine usage. The initial VM-based cluster, built on existing VMs, became a "monster" that was difficult to maintain and operate. Expansion into a traditional intranet led to a redesign rather than redeployment, creating a cloud-native platform addressing networking, load balancing, storage, and operations. The platform pairs OpenStack as the private cloud foundation with Talos OS as the Kubernetes operating system, enabling automation for dynamic storage provisioning, load balancing, and subnet manipulation. The main challenges were organizational, so new cloud-native teams were created instead of retraining legacy teams.
Read at InfoQ
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