As organizations embrace cloud-native applications, the demand for efficient platform engineering solutions grows, helping teams manage tools, ensure security and maintain operational efficiency.
The growing complexity of multicloud and Kubernetes environments has created a need for streamlined solutions that simplify deployment and observability, according to Chris Munford, founder and chief executive officer of Nethopper LLC. The company, a leader in platform engineering, is addressing this challenge with its innovative Kubernetes AI Operations solution.
“[With] innovation in platform engineering, there’s a lot of it happening,” Munford said. “Platform engineers need to juggle dozens — if not more — open-source projects to innovate in their job and help deliver modern apps to the cloud or data center of their choice.”
Munford spoke with theCUBE’s Christophe Bertrand during the Tech Innovation CUBEd Awards 2025 interview series, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, News Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how KAOPS enables enterprises to manage their DevOps pipelines more effectively, providing a centralized platform that enhances automation, security, and scalability.
How platform engineering solutions simplify cloud-native operations and expand innovation with private AI
Nethopper’s KAOPS platform offers a flexible deployment model that meets the varying needs of enterprises. Whether customers prefer a fully managed software-as-a-service solution or an air-gapped self-hosted deployment for security-sensitive environments, KAOPS is designed to accommodate different infrastructures.
“We support both the SaaS method, where you use our backend to consume the service, but also a self-hosted model where, especially for security-conscious customers, they don’t have to go to the internet,” Munford explained. “They can have a completely air-gapped solution.”
KAOPS also helps enterprises reduce inefficiencies caused by tool sprawl, consolidating multiple dashboards and deployment mechanisms into a single command-and-control interface, according to Munford. As part of its broader approach to platform engineering solutions, KAOPS streamlines operations, saving time and reducing complexity. In recognition of its impact on simplifying cloud-native operations, Nethopper received theCUBE’s Most Innovative Product for Platform Engineering Teams award.
“KAOPS is a single command and control mechanism and dashboard with one [user interface]. “[It] can combine the dashboards and administration of all of the tools necessary to roll out all of these apps for an enterprise,” he said.
Beyond software deployment, Nethopper is expanding its impact by supporting AI adoption in enterprise environments, according to Munford. Companies need secure and controlled AI deployment to manage sensitive data while maintaining visibility and compliance. KAOPS provides a way to implement private AI solutions with security and observability in mind.
“Our platform is very useful for deploying what we’re calling private AI and allowing people to take control, observability and secure the data involved in their AI initiatives,” Munford shared. “So our secret sauce is not only being a single platform that helps you deploy multiple apps … it can also help control the AI future for enterprises.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of News’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage for the Tech Innovation CUBEd Awards 2025 interview series:
Photo: News
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