AI
The Gap Between eBPF Bytecode and Business Outcomes
At KubeCon Amsterdam three years ago, Cilium and eBPF generated excitement. Then came the real question from potential users: why does bytecode running in the kernel matter to the business? Mulligan frames this as a recurring problem across software. Engineers write code, but the link between that code and the capital driving a business stays invisible. His five-minute talk lays out a framework to close that gap.
A Four-Layer Framework: User to Bottom Line
The framework starts with the user. Users come to a project to solve a specific use case, such as multicluster networking or network observability. Those use cases address industry challenges, which connect to a business outcome. Mulligan built this model over three years maintaining Cilium. eBPF already runs on every Android phone, deployed on billions of devices. The framework makes that scale legible to people who control budgets, not just kernels.
Bloomberg: Host-Based Network Policies Unlock New Revenue
Bloomberg, a financial services company, presented at CiliumCon three years ago. Their use case was network policy to secure Kubernetes clusters. Cilium’s host-based network policies let Bloomberg lock down clusters in ways their previous networking solutions could not. That capability addresses financial services requirements around security, compliance, and regulation. Cilium features like encryption and egress gateway map directly to those industry challenges.
From Compliance Feature to New Lines of Business
The business outcome Bloomberg targeted was zero trust networking. Switching to Cilium as their networking solution let them offer new features and solutions to existing customers, opening new lines of business. Mulligan’s point is that nobody is actually trying to accumulate a billion downloads. The goal is to affect the bottom line. Bloomberg’s path from host-based network policy to new revenue is the concrete proof of that chain working end to end.
How the Cilium Website Mirrors the Framework
The Cilium homepage operationalizes the framework. A users tab hosts nearly 100 public case studies from organizations across industries describing what they solve with Cilium. Those case studies feed into feature pages covering network policy and egress gateway, which connect to industry vertical pages, including an AI use case. The vertical pages then link to business outcome pages such as zero trust networking. The site structure traces the same four layers as the framework itself.
Notable Quotes
“Yeah, this bite code in the kernel, why does it even matter to my business?” Bill Mulligan · ▶ 00:18
“The software that I write is deployed on billions of devices worldwide.” Bill Mulligan · ▶ 01:27
“You’re not trying to get a billion downloads. What you’re actually trying to do is solve a business challenge that you can actually affect the bottom line.” Bill Mulligan · ▶ 04:07
Key Takeaways
- eBPF’s business case requires mapping bytecode to specific user outcomes, not just technical capabilities.
- Bloomberg used Cilium host-based network policies to unlock new customer revenue streams.
- Nearly 100 Cilium case studies on the website connect features to industry challenges and business outcomes.
About the Speaker(s)
Bill Mulligan is a cloud native pollinator, community builder, and maintainer for Cilium and ebpf.io. He has given talks, written articles, and appeared on podcasts on a wide range of topics around cloud native. While at CNCF he restarted the Kubernetes Community Day program.