I’m excited to be speaking at The Cloud & AI Summit 2026, happening September 30 through October 2 in St. Charles, Missouri.
This year, I’ll be delivering two sessions covering topics I spend a lot of time working with in the real world: multi-cloud architecture and operations, and container security with Docker Scout, Azure Container Registry, and AKS.
What I like about both sessions is that they go beyond the marketing and focus on what actually happens when you have to build, operate, secure, and support these technologies in production.
Multi-Cloud Without the Marketing
My first session is:
Multi-Cloud Without the Marketing or Designing for Multi-Cloud Without Losing Your Mind
We hear the term multi-cloud constantly. Organizations want flexibility. They want to avoid lock-in. They want applications that can move anywhere.
That sounds great.
The reality gets complicated very quickly.
Once you start operating across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, you have to deal with different approaches to networking, identity, infrastructure as code, observability, Kubernetes, application deployment, security, and more.
The bigger challenge often isn’t even the technology. It’s figuring out how your teams and operating model need to change to support multiple clouds effectively.
In this session, I’m going to dig into what can realistically be standardized across cloud platforms and where trying to force everything into a common model can actually create more complexity.
We’ll talk about areas including infrastructure as code, Kubernetes, networking, identity and access, application deployment, observability, and the structure of the teams responsible for running these environments.
The goal isn’t to convince everyone that they need three clouds.
It’s to help teams make better architectural decisions when multi-cloud becomes part of their reality.
Having worked with Azure, AWS, and GCP environments throughout my career, I’ve seen both the benefits and the operational challenges that come with multi-cloud. I’m looking forward to sharing some of those lessons.
From Push to Protected with Docker Scout
My second session shifts into container security:
From Push to Protected: Scanning Azure Container Registry Images with Docker Scout
Containers make it incredibly easy to package and ship software, but getting an image into a registry is only part of the story.
The question becomes:
What is actually inside that image?
A container can build successfully, push to Azure Container Registry, and deploy into AKS while still containing vulnerable operating system packages, outdated dependencies, or an insecure base image.
This session will focus on how Docker Scout can help teams continuously evaluate container images stored in Azure Container Registry.
I’ll walk through a practical workflow showing an application image being built and pushed to ACR, analyzing that image with Docker Scout, identifying vulnerabilities, improving the base image, and then seeing the security posture improve.
We’ll also look at dependency drift, vulnerability prioritization, Docker Hardened Images, and where container scanning fits into the larger application delivery process.
The idea is not to bolt security onto the end of your pipeline.
It’s to make security part of the normal way your teams build and deliver containers.
Bringing Cloud Operations and Security Together
There’s actually a common theme between these two sessions.
Modern cloud environments are becoming increasingly complex.
Organizations are operating across clouds. Kubernetes continues to be a major application platform. Containers are moving rapidly through CI/CD pipelines. AI is accelerating software development even further.
The answer can’t simply be adding more tools.
We need architectures, platforms, processes, and engineering teams that reduce complexity while still giving developers the flexibility they need.
That is a big part of what I plan to explore during my sessions at the Cloud & AI Summit.
Not just what the technology can do, but how we can actually operate it successfully.
Reconnecting With the Tech Community
One of the things I’m also looking forward to most about the Cloud & AI Summit is reconnecting with people I’ve worked with and known throughout my career.
Conferences like this are about much more than the sessions. They are a chance to reconnect with former Microsoft colleagues, fellow Microsoft MVPs, Docker Captains, community leaders, and friends from across the industry.
I’m especially looking forward to catching up with my former Microsoft colleague Chris Ayers, Microsoft MVPs Donnie Taylor, John Joyner, and Kris Turner, and fellow Docker Captain Shivay Lamba.
Technology changes quickly, but the relationships and communities built around it are what make events like this special. Some of the best conversations at conferences happen outside the session rooms, comparing experiences, talking about what we’re building, and learning from one another.
It will be great to get everyone together again.
See You at the Cloud & AI Summit
I’m looking forward to getting back in front of the technical community, connecting with other speakers and attendees, and having some great conversations around cloud, containers, Kubernetes, security, and AI.
The Cloud & AI Summit has sessions covering areas including Cloud Operations, AI, DevOps, Security, Data & Analytics, Pro Code, and Low Code, so there will be a lot happening throughout the three-day event.
If you’re attending, come find me. You can find my sessions here:
https://www.cloudandaisummit.com/content/speakerdetail/steve-buchanan
And if you’re running multi-cloud environments, working with AKS and containers, or trying to figure out how to secure your software supply chain without slowing down your developers, I’d especially love to connect.
See you at The Cloud & AI Summit 2026!
