New research released at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India highlights rising hybrid cloud adoption, platform engineering maturity and growing cloud native AI development

Key Highlights:

• CNCF and SlashData released the State of Cloud Native Development in India report, analyzing trends across more than 12,500 developers in 100 countries.
• The report findings show India is home to an estimated 2.25 million cloud native developers as of Q1 2026.
• Hybrid cloud adoption in India has reached 44%, exceeding the global average of 34%.
• Approximately half of professional AI developers in India are cloud native, highlighting the growing role of cloud native infrastructure in supporting AI workloads.

MUMBAI, India, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India -- The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today released new findings from its latest State of Cloud Native Development in India report in collaboration with SlashData. Based on data from more than 12,500 developers across 100 countries, the research highlights the continued growth of India's cloud native ecosystem, increasing adoption of hybrid cloud infrastructure and the expanding role of cloud native technologies in supporting AI development.

The report estimates that India is home to approximately 2.25 million cloud native developers as of Q1 2026, or approximately 11% of 20 million global cloud native developers, making it one of the world's largest and fastest-growing cloud native communities. Cloud native adoption in India continues to outpace global trends in several key areas such as hybrid cloud deployment, Kubernetes adoption and AI development.

"The industry is shifting from AI-assisted tooling to AI-native systems built on open standards," said Jonathan Bryce, executive director, CNCF. "The growth we're seeing in India isn't just about adoption; it's about the community actively building the infrastructure that makes inference possible at scale, utilizing the same cloud native standards that power the rest of the world."

India's cloud native ecosystem continues to expand

The report found that cloud native technologies are becoming increasingly mainstream across India's software development landscape. Growth is being supported by a large and expanding population of younger developers entering the workforce with experience in cloud native technologies and practices.

• 70% of India's cloud native developers are under age 35, compared to 39% globally.
• Developers under 25 account for approximately 30% of India's cloud native community, significantly higher than many established technology markets.

Platform engineering reshapes cloud native adoption

The report also highlights how platform engineering is reshaping developer experiences. Among Indian backend developers, Kubernetes usage reached 42%, surpassing reported container adoption at 39%—the opposite of the global pattern. The finding reflects the widespread use of managed Kubernetes services, where developers work at the orchestration layer while the underlying container infrastructure is handled by the platform, making Kubernetes the primary interface to cloud native technologies.

• Further, 71% of backend developers use at least one cloud native technology or practice, while only 52% meet the threshold to be classified as cloud native.
  • This suggests many organizations remain in the early stages of cloud native maturity and continue to expand their adoption of modern infrastructure practices.

Hybrid cloud adoption reaches new highs

The report identified hybrid cloud as the most widely used deployment approach among developers in India.

• 44% report using hybrid cloud, exceeding the global average of 34%, which also represents the highest level recorded globally to date.

"India stands out not only for the size of its cloud native community, but also for how developers are adopting cloud technologies," said Liam Bollmann-Dodd, principal market research consultant at SlashData. "The combination of hybrid cloud growth, Kubernetes adoption and AI development points to an ecosystem that is setting a standard for innovation."

To learn more, download the full report.

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry's top developers, end users, and vendors and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by nearly 800 members, including the world's largest cloud computing and software companies, as well as over 200 innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cncf.io.

About SlashData
SlashData is an analyst firm with more than 20 years of experience in the software industry, working with the top Tech brands. SlashData helps platform and engineering leaders make better product, marketing and strategy decisions through best-in-class research, benchmarks, and foresight into how developers, tools, and software are changing.

Media Contact
Haley White
The Linux Foundation
pr@cncf.io

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SOURCE Cloud Native Computing Foundation