For this edition of The New Stack Makers, we sit down with Alex Kestner, principal product manager at Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, Amazon Web Services. Kestner explains how Amazon EKS Auto Mode fits into AWS’s hyperscaler stack and his role in engaging with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). This discussion took place during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026, in Amsterdam.
Inherent power, inherent complexity
Getting the inconvenient truth out of the way right up front, Kestner agrees that the challenge with Kubernetes is that, because it is so powerful, there’s a certain amount of complexity that comes with any toolset of its muscle. The more welcome news is that, with Amazon EKS, there is a “healthy portion of undifferentiated heavy lifting” that AWS can take on for customers.
But why do complexities arise? Is it down to scaling challenges, service interconnects, or…
