Allianz Direct's Reference Architecture

Study Guide: CNCF Projects and Training for Allianz Direct’s Reference Architecture#

This guide outlines the CNCF projects and supporting technologies required to implement Allianz Direct’s reference architecture and provides official Linux Foundation training resources for each technology. The guide is organized as a learning path, starting with foundational knowledge and progressing through platform, GitOps, observability, and SRE practices.

1. Foundational Knowledge#

A solid understanding of Linux, containers, and cloud native fundamentals is essential before working with CNCF projects.

2. Core Platform: Kubernetes#

Kubernetes is the foundation of Allianz Direct’s Internal Developer Platform, orchestrating containerized workloads.

3. Package Management: Helm#

Helm is used to manage Kubernetes applications, abstracting complexity and enabling repeatable deployments.

4. GitOps and Workflow Automation: Argo & Crossplane#

Argo#

Allianz Direct uses all four Argo projects (Argo CD, Workflows, Events, Rollouts) for GitOps, workflow automation, and multi-tenant management.

Crossplane#

Crossplane is used for infrastructure as code and cloud resource management, integrated with GitOps practices.

Crossplane (Incubating)
Official Documentation
No dedicated Linux Foundation course as of November 2025. For foundational skills, see Introduction to GitOps (LFS169) and GitOps Certified Associate (CGOA).

5. Observability and Monitoring: PAGT Stack & OpenTelemetry#

Prometheus, Alertmanager, Grafana, Thanos (PAGT Stack)#

These projects form the core observability stack for metrics, alerting, dashboards, and long-term storage.

OpenTelemetry#

Used for distributed tracing and advanced observability.

6. Infrastructure as Code and Automation#

Atlantis (Non-CNCF)#

Atlantis is used for Terraform automation. There is no official Linux Foundation course for Atlantis, but foundational infrastructure as code and GitOps skills are covered in:

Introduction to GitOps (LFS169)

Terraform (Non-CNCF)#

For Terraform, refer to HashiCorp’s official documentation.

7. Logging and Analytics#

ELK Stack (Non-CNCF)#

The ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) is used for log analytics. These are not CNCF projects and do not have official Linux Foundation training, but are widely used in cloud native environments.

8. Cloud Services (AWS)#

Allianz Direct’s architecture is deployed on AWS using EKS (managed Kubernetes), Fargate ECS, MSK (Kafka), and Redis. These are not CNCF projects. For cloud provider-specific training, refer to AWS’s own training resources.

9. Additional Recommended Training#

10. Community and Further Learning#

This study guide provides a structured path for teams to build the skills necessary to implement Allianz Direct’s cloud native reference architecture using CNCF projects and best practices. For the most current course offerings and certifications, always refer to the Linux Foundation Training Catalog.