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RepliCon Q4 brought together the Replicated team and our community for a fast-paced walkthrough of what we’ve been building, and where we’re headed next. This quarter’s sessions highlight the speed at which Replicated continues to ship, with improvements across installers, enterprise tooling, and the broader software distribution lifecycle. You’ll also notice a stronger emphasis on security throughout the talks, as we expand the Replicated platform to help vendors better understand vulnerabilities and deliver their software as securely and reliably as possible.
Below, we’ve summarized each session and linked to the full recordings so you can dive deeper into the topics that matter most to you.
What’s Next for Replicated’s Installers?
Alex Parker, Staff Product Manager, Replicated
Alex Parker shared where Replicated’s installers are headed, starting with why install remains one of the most critical parts of the commercial software distribution lifecycle. If customers can’t install your software reliably, nothing else in the lifecycle really matters.
The session focused on the next generation of Embedded Cluster, which delivers a new installer experience designed to simplify installs and upgrades. Improvements include a fully UI-driven install flow, clearer progress visibility, streamed logs for easier troubleshooting, and stronger host pre-flight checks, all supporting Replicated’s goal of a 95% first-attempt install success rate.
Alex also covered improvements to the upgrade process through deeper integration with Enterprise Portal, which is now the central place for customers to manage installs, upgrades, and new releases.
The talk closed with a look at how this new installer foundation could benefit kURL, KOTS, and Helm-based installs, with a longer-term vision of unifying today’s installer experiences into a simpler, more flexible tool.
👉 Watch the full session to see what’s changing and how it could impact the way you ship software with Replicated.
Product Update: What’s New for Vendors in the Replicated Platform
Amber Alston, VP of Product, Replicated
Amber Alston walked through the latest product updates focused on the vendor side of the Replicated platform, highlighting new capabilities designed to help software vendors scale distribution across more customers and environments with less friction.
The session centered on the continued evolution of Enterprise Portal, now generally available for installations using Embedded Cluster or the Helm CLI. Enterprise Portal is positioned as the front door for software delivery, bringing guided installs, upgrades, support bundle uploads, and vendor branding into a single experience for customers.
Amber also covered new customization options that give vendors more control over how customers interact with installation and upgrade workflows, along with early progress on security and operational visibility through features like the Security Center alpha and new notification capabilities.
👉 Watch the full session to see the latest vendor-facing updates and how they work together across the Replicated platform.
Delivering Customer-Aware Install Paths in the Enterprise Portal
Martez Killens, Senior Solutions Engineer, Replicated
Martez Killens introduced a new Enterprise Portal capability that lets vendors deliver customized installation instructions for different customers and release channels. The goal is to replace one-size-fits-all guidance with clearer, more contextual instructions that reduce confusion and cut down on support overhead.
The session walked through how to build custom instructions using MDX, combining familiar markdown with Replicated-provided components, variables, and conditional rendering. That means vendors can tailor content based on install type and environment, reuse rich UI building blocks like alerts, steps, tabs, and troubleshoot sections, and keep everything in one place instead of maintaining separate docs elsewhere.
Martez demonstrated how the experience can change across channels, from the default guided instructions to a fully customized path that adds prerequisites, diagrams, and more detailed guidance for Helm values and Embedded Cluster installs. He also showed the in-browser editor with autocomplete, making it easier to iterate quickly without external tooling.
👉 Watch the full session to see what is possible with customer-aware instructions, and how vendors can build clearer install paths that scale across channels and customer types.
Handle Air-Gapped & Network-Restricted with Compatibility Matrix
Han Yu, Senior Product Manager, Replicated
Han Yu introduced new Compatibility Matrix capabilities designed to help vendors better prepare their applications for air-gapped and network-restricted customer environments. These scenarios are common across regulated industries, and proactively understanding how an application behaves in them can make installations smoother.
The session focused on two new features: network policies and network reporting. Together, they allow vendors to test installations in air-gapped or network restricted environments and report on outbound network activity. When the network policy is set to “air gap” and network reporting is enabled, Compatibility Matrix blocks egress and analyzes DNS requests and responses, helping vendors understand where traffic originates and whether it is expected or problematic.
These reports can be used both during development and in CI to detect unintended network behavior, catch regressions introduced by dependency changes, and build confidence with security-conscious customers. The talk closed with a preview of upcoming Compatibility Matrix UI improvements aimed at making it even easier to model real customer environments.
👉 Watch the full session to see how Compatibility Matrix can help you test, validate, and communicate your application’s behavior in air-gapped and network-restricted environments.
Interested in What’s Coming Next?
Several of the sessions at RepliCon Q4 highlighted new capabilities that are currently available through early access or closed testing. These features are designed to help vendors deliver smoother installs, stronger security assurances, and better visibility into how their software runs in customer environments.
Opportunities to participate in early testing include:
- Next-generation Embedded Cluster installer
- A unified, UI-driven install and upgrade experience designed to improve visibility, resilience, and first-attempt install success rates.
- Customizable installation instructions in Enterprise Portal
- Channel- and customer-aware install paths that allow vendors to deliver clearer, more contextual guidance without maintaining separate documentation.
- Enterprise Portal Security Center (alpha)
- Improved visibility into vulnerabilities and SBOMs for both vendors and customers, helping drive upgrades and strengthen trust in secure delivery.
- Event-based notifications (alpha)
- A new notifications system that provides finer-grained alerts for customer activity, releases, and support events, with flexible filtering and delivery options.
- SAML-based authentication for Enterprise Portal (alpha)
- Enterprise-friendly authentication that allows customers to integrate Enterprise Portal into existing SSO workflows.
- Compatibility Matrix network policy and reporting
- Tools for testing in air-gapped and network-restricted environments, capturing outbound network activity, and validating application behavior before customer deployment.
If you’re interested in exploring any of these capabilities or helping shape them with early feedback, reach out to your Replicated account executive to learn more and request access.