The Foundation Was Already Poured
Cloud Native Now, Monday, July 27th, 2026
Cloud native infrastructure provides the essential foundations that enterprise AI systems inherit rather than replace.
Alan Shimel argues that AI workloads are not replacing cloud native technology but rather building upon its established foundations of scheduling, identity, observability, and governance.
He contends that organizations focusing solely on model selection miss the critical operational capabilities-deployment, security, cost controls, and audit trails-that determine whether AI can safely operate in production.
While autonomous agents introduce new challenges around identity and permissions, these represent extensions of existing cloud native capabilities rather than reasons to abandon proven infrastructure patterns.