Untangling CSI: Powering Persistent Storage for KubeVirt - Brenda McLaren & Chris Keller, Red Hat

Don't miss out! Join us at our next Flagship Conference: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon events in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (23-26 March, 2026). Connect with our current graduated, incubating, and sandbox projects as the community gathers to further the education and advancement of cloud native computing. Learn more at https://kubecon.io Untangling CSI: Powering Persistent Storage for KubeVirt - Brenda McLaren & Chris Keller, Red Hat In the cloud-native world, Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers are the unsung heroes behind the seamless provisioning and management of persistent storage. With so many options, protocols, and features, choosing the right CSI driver can feel like navigating a maze in the dark. We’ll shine a spotlight on the CSI standard, comparing both traditional external storage platforms and software defined storage solutions, breaking down the architectures and key capabilities. You'll learn how these solutions support VM workloads, what features to prioritize, and how to avoid common pitfalls when building a resilient storage backend for your virtualized workloads. By the end of this talk, the fog will lift, and you’ll walk away with the clarity and confidence whether you're integrating with legacy storage arrays or adopting modern SDS solutions to unlock the full potential of virtualized infrastructure on Kubernetes with KubeVirt.