Why Broadcom gave Velero to the CNCF Sandbox — and what it means for Kubernetes data protection

Host A: Welcome to DevTools Radio, I'm your host, and today we're digging into some big news from the Kubernetes world — Broadcom has donated Velero to the CNCF Sandbox, and honestly, it's a move that has a lot of people in the cloud native space talking.

Host B: Right, and for listeners who might not be deep in the Kubernetes ecosystem, Velero is essentially a data protection and backup tool for Kubernetes clusters — so this is kind of a big deal for anyone running workloads in the cloud.

Host A: Exactly. And the context here is important — this donation happened at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam, where The New Stack sat down with Dilpreet Bindra, senior director of engineering at VMware by Broadcom, to talk through why they made this move.

Host B: So what's the thinking behind just... giving it away? Like, Broadcom is a massive company. Why hand over governance of a project you've been steering?

Host A: Well, it's actually pretty strategic when you break it down. Bindra was pretty candid about it — he said they didn't want people to mistrust Velero as an open source project, or see it as just a "VMware thing." And his words were, quote, "it hasn't been a VMware thing for quite some time."

Host B: That's interesting, because perception really does matter in open source. If developers think a tool is essentially controlled by one vendor, they're going to be skeptical about contributing or even adopting it.

Host A: Totally. And apparently the community response when the donation was announced was overwhelmingly positive — Bindra described it as a resounding "yeah, this makes complete sense." Which tells you the community was already feeling that tension.

Host B: So by moving it into the CNCF Sandbox, you're essentially putting it on a neutral playing field — more contributors, more trust, more momentum. It's a bit like a parent letting their kid go to a better school, right?

Host A: Ha, that's one way to put it! And Broadcom isn't walking away from Velero entirely — Bindra actually said they plan to use it even broader than its current definition, positioning it as the industry standard for data protection in Kubernetes environments.

Host B: That's the part that caught my attention too. So Broadcom donates governance but still benefits from the project growing and becoming a standard — and meanwhile, enterprises get a more community-driven, trustworthy tool. Sounds like a win-win on paper.

Host A: And it fits into a bigger picture of how Broadcom is tackling the Kubernetes challenge overall — focusing on lifecycle management, long-term support, and tight integration with existing infrastructure like vSphere. They're playing a long game as a full-stack Kubernetes provider.

Host B: Which, for a lot of enterprises still wrestling with Kubernetes complexity, that kind of commitment to reducing operational overhead is really what they need to hear.

Host A: Absolutely. Alright, that's going to do it for today's episode — if you're working with Kubernetes data protection, keep an eye on the Velero project as it finds its new home in the CNCF ecosystem. It's one to watch.

Host B: For sure. Thanks for tuning in to DevTools Radio, everyone — keep building, keep contributing, and we'll catch you in the next one.