Building & Managing Container Images at Scale with Cloud Native Buildpacks by Terence Lee, Fuchs

Cloud Native Buildpacks (CNB) transform source code into standardized OCI container images without requiring Dockerfiles

CNBs provide better caching and layer reuse compared to Dockerfiles through intelligent layer management and dependency caching

Rebasing images with CNBs allows updating base OS layers without rebuilding entire applications, significantly reducing build time and resource usage at scale

Build logic is centralized and standardized across an organization through reusable buildpacks, rather than scattered across individual Dockerfiles

Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation is built into CNBs, providing transparency into image contents and dependencies

CNBs support multiple programming languages and frameworks while being framework-agnostic (Java/Maven/Gradle, Node.js, etc.)

Security patches and policy updates can be rolled out centrally through buildpack updates rather than modifying individual application builds

Build reproducibility is improved through consistent build processes and explicit version management

Separate build concerns between application developers and platform teams - developers focus on code while platform teams manage build infrastructure

Reduced base image proliferation by composing buildpacks rather than maintaining separate images for each tech stack combination