The News
At KubeCon North America 2025, Replicated announced the launch of Secure Build, a zero-CVE solution designed to strengthen the security posture of distributed software deployed in customer environments. The company, which has long enabled self-hosted software distribution, is now primarily serving AI vendors like Cohere, Crew AI, and H2O.ai that deploy directly into enterprise customer environments. Replicated continues to bundle embedded Kubernetes with applications for customers lacking container orchestration infrastructure, partnering with KZeros and Mirantis to support this capability. The company is also expanding its role within Dell’s AI Factory ecosystem, where it already powers distribution for key partners.
Analyst Take
The enterprise AI market is experiencing a shift in deployment models, driven by data sovereignty requirements, regulatory compliance, and security concerns that make self-hosted solutions increasingly attractive. Replicated’s positioning at the center of this trend reflects broader market dynamics where AI vendors must support on-premises deployment to win enterprise deals, particularly in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government. Our Day 0 research shows that 76% of organizations report high familiarity with cloud-native architecture principles, yet 61.79% still operate hybrid deployment models combining on-premises and cloud infrastructure. This hybrid reality creates the exact market conditions where Replicated’s distribution platform delivers value by enabling AI vendors to deploy seamlessly across diverse customer environments without building custom installation and operations tooling for each deployment model.
The launch of Secure Build addresses a critical gap in the software supply chain security landscape. As organizations accelerate AI adoption with 70.1% planning to adopt artificial intelligence as their top technology priority in the next year according to our Day 0 research, the security implications of deploying AI models and frameworks in customer environments have intensified. Our DevSecOps research reveals that 50.9% of organizations identify vulnerabilities in container images or source code on a weekly basis, while another 26.7% scan daily. The challenge for AI vendors distributing self-hosted solutions is maintaining security posture across dozens or hundreds of customer deployments, each with different infrastructure configurations and compliance requirements. Replicated’s zero-CVE approach provides a centralized mechanism for managing security across all releases and customers, reducing the operational burden on AI vendors while addressing enterprise security concerns that often block on-premises AI deployments.
The embedded Kubernetes strategy reflects market maturity in container orchestration adoption, but also reveals persistent gaps in enterprise readiness. While our Day 0 research shows that over 50% of organizations have containerized the majority of their workloads, and 67.47% report using Google Cloud Anthos, 60.27% use Azure AKS, and 59.73% use Amazon EKS, these figures represent organizations that have already invested in Kubernetes infrastructure. Replicated’s value proposition targets the remaining market of enterprises that want to consume AI applications without first building Kubernetes expertise or infrastructure. This “Kubernetes as a hidden implementation detail” approach lowers the barrier to AI adoption for organizations that view container orchestration as undifferentiated infrastructure rather than a strategic capability. The strategy also highlights a tension in the market as Kubernetes becomes more commoditized, the competitive advantage shifts to higher-level abstractions and operational tooling that simplify deployment and lifecycle management.
The underpublicized role within Dell’s AI Factory ecosystem represents Replicated’s most significant near-term growth opportunity. Dell’s push into AI infrastructure creates a natural distribution channel for AI vendors, but the ecosystem’s current limitations, primarily around the breadth of available AI applications, constrain its market impact. Replicated already enables key Dell partners like Cohere and H2O.ai to integrate with the AI Factory, yet this capability remains largely invisible to potential customers and partners. The challenge is not technical but strategic. There needs to be an elevation of Replicated’s role from behind-the-scenes enabler to recognized platform that accelerates AI vendor integration with enterprise infrastructure providers. This visibility gap is particularly costly given that 70.4% of organizations plan to invest in AI and machine learning as their top spending priority over the next 12 months, according to our Day 0 research, creating urgency for AI vendors to establish distribution partnerships that reach enterprise buyers.
Looking Ahead
The self-hosted AI market will continue to expand as enterprises confront the operational realities of managing AI applications in production environments with strict data governance and compliance requirements. Replicated’s challenge is scaling its platform to support the explosion of AI vendors entering the market while maintaining the security and operational simplicity that makes self-hosted deployment viable for enterprises. The company’s focus on adding core AI functionality to help customers configure and launch faster suggests recognition that distribution tooling must evolve beyond generic Kubernetes packaging to address AI-specific operational needs like model versioning, inference optimization, and GPU resource management. Success will require Replicated to balance horizontal platform capabilities with vertical AI-specific features that differentiate it from generic container distribution tools.
The strategic partnership opportunity with Dell and other infrastructure providers will likely define Replicated’s trajectory over the next 12-18 months. As hyperscalers and hardware vendors build AI infrastructure offerings, they need application ecosystems to drive adoption. The classic platform challenge of attracting both sides of a two-sided market. Replicated’s existing relationships with dozens of AI vendors position it as a potential ecosystem aggregator, but capturing this opportunity requires a shift from developer-focused technical validation messaging to business-centric narratives around time to value and market access that resonate with C-level decision-makers at both AI vendors and infrastructure providers. With 64% of organizations planning immediate expansion of observability and operational tooling investments, and security and compliance ranking as the second-highest spending priority at 68.29%, Replicated’s security-first approach to AI distribution aligns well with enterprise buying priorities. The question is whether the company can amplify this message effectively to capture mindshare in a rapidly consolidating market where visibility and strategic partnerships increasingly determine which platforms achieve scale.
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