Kubernetes Controllers and Operators are a trending topic in conferences, interviews, and production today. I will share the story of the evolution of our Promotion (Release) system, from simple Kubernetes API REST calls to Informers and Controllers, based on my own experience. This story is particularly interesting because it serves as a great case for personal growth for you as well as for your DevOps/SRE team. It touches on Kubernetes architecture details, Networking, GitOps, IaC, Caching, development patterns, and Golang data structures. Even if you have no development experience (as is the case for most of our team), I will share how a Cursor AI assistant became yet another — though virtual — engineer on our team. Bonus: 10 years of Kubernetes & trends KubeCon24 North America.