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CNCF End User Stories Guidelines

Overview

You’ve got great case studies. We want our ecosystem (and beyond) to hear about the impact CNCF projects and cloud native technologies are having on your business. They are also a valuable resource for organizations considering adopting cloud native technologies and helping showcase participating CNCF organizations as leaders in their field.

There are a number of ways you can participate in the case study program. Please see further information and eligibility criteria below

Written case study

  • Open to any end user (CNCF member or non-member companies that use, but don’t sell cloud native technologies) organization working with a * CNCF incubating or graduated project
  • CNCF members can provide a case study centered on your customer use case with details about how you helped with the implementation
  • All case studies must demonstrate at least one tangible business impact of CNCF incubating or graduated projects

Online Programs – CNCF Member organizations can also submit a case study webinar.

Ensure maximum engagement. Review the guidelines below to optimize your case study.

Tips for Getting Started & Engagement

  • Simple and concise is the way to go
  • Less is more – 750 words or less is optimal, but no more than 1,000
  • Bullets
    • break up long paragraphs of text
    • help highlight key points, successes, and metrics
  • Section headers
    • Clear, results-oriented headline, section headers (instead of stating Challenge, Solution, Results):
    • Add interest
    • Provide context for the section (i.e. takeaways)
    • Help with SEO
    • Tip: ChatGPT is great for help
  • Visuals and architecture diagrams (when applicable) add interest and help tell your story
    • Ensure they are hi-res
  • Feature individual voices
    • Please use the active voice in CNCF case studies. More information on active vs passive voices can be found here
  • Conversational and honest: avoid jargon-heavy corporate speak
    • All CNCF publications use "open source" and "cloud native" as the proper style
  • User-centric: highlight the real-world experience of engineers or decision-makers
  • Outcome-driven: focus on measurable impacts and lessons learned
  • Mention contributions, bug reports, or participation in working groups or KubeCon and other relevant meetups, KCDs, events, and talks.
  • Tell the full journey. It’s OK to include challenges or roadblocks—this adds authenticity and relatability
  • Invite readers to reach out, explore a GitHub repo, or learn more about the project

Be Sure to Provide

  • Company Name & Logo & Logos of referenced projects
  • Challenges
    • Example: Fragmented Legacy Systems, Data Silos, Lack of Interoperability, Dynamic Evolving Requirements
  • Industry
  • Location
  • Cloud type(s)
  • Product Type
  • CNCF Projects Used
  • Bullet point list of Metrics for “By the numbers” infographic

What to Include

  • Note: All case studies must demonstrate at least one tangible business impact of CNCF incubating or graduated projects
  • Title & Summary
    • Use a clear, results-oriented headline
    • Example–“How [Company] Reduced Deployment Time by 70% with [CNCF Project]”
    • Include a 2–3 sentence executive summary with key outcomes
  • Company Overview - briefly introduce the company: size, industry, mission, and digital strategy focus
  • Challenges
    • Describe specific technical or business problems and measurable goals
  • Solution–detail the solution with an emphasis on:
    • Why CNCF/cloud native tools were chosen
    • Architecture diagrams, if applicable
    • Phases of adoption (e.g., pilot → scale)
  • Results
    • Quantifiable improvements (time saved, costs reduced, performance gains)
    • Developer productivity and team morale
    • Before/after comparisons or metrics
    • Key lessons learned and future plans (if applicable)
  • Future Plans
    • Upcoming initiatives or deeper integration with CNCF technologies
    • Potential for community contributions or open sourcing
  • At least one quote must be included
    • From someone who worked on or with the project - engineers, SREs, or product leads help humanize the story

The CNCF Marketing team reserve the right to edit and publish case studies with revisions, without requiring the original author's final approval.

How to Submit

  • Fill out the submission form
  • The CNCF team reviews proposals and provides any feedback within 20 working days
  • Finalized case studies will be added to the CNCF case study page on CNCF.io and considered for promotion across CNCF marketing outlets such as the CNCF newsletter, social, and slack channels
  • NOTE: Refer to the tips, what to provide, and what to include above for a streamlined process