On 8 – 9 December 2021, HORIZON CLOUD organised the second edition of Horizon Cloud Summit, the flagship event of the HORIZON CLOUD initiative. Aim of the Summit was to gather innovators and researchers, Cloud adopters, policy makers, as well as Cloud initiatives, and open-source projects to shape the EU digital transition. Originally planned as physical event co-located with Cloud Expo Europe, the Summit and the Expo moved online at the very last minute, due to increasing COVID-19 cases in Germany and Europe. Despite the sudden change of location, the Summit was a big success. A total of 225 participants attended the event and discussed the future of Cloud Computing in Europe with 46 speakers during 8 inspiring sessions. You can find the recordings of all sessions here.
DAY 1
The first day of the event, that was moderated by Martel Innovate CEO Monique Calisti, kicked-off with an opening presentation held by Pierre Chastanet, Head of Cloud and Software Unit of the European Commission, on building the Next Generation Cloud and Edge for EU Businesses and the Public Service. Hereafter, Lars Nagel, CEO of the International Data Spaces Association, spoke on the importance of building European Data Spaces. Then, Mark Dietrich, H-CLOUD partner, and Senior Advisor at the EGI Foundation, introduced the draft of the H-CLOUD White Paper focusing on a Cloud Computing Strategy for Europe.
The event continued then with a High-Profile Panel on the topic of building European Digital Autonomy in the Computing Continuum with the following panelists:
- Klaus Ottradovetz, VP Global Service Delivery, ATOS
- Alban Schmutz, SVP Public Affairs OVHcloud; Chairman CISPE; GAIA-X cofounder & Deputy interim CTO
- Maria Barros Weiss, VP Research Digital Ecosystems, IONOS
- Geert Machtelinckx, Business Development and Project Management, Threefold Tech.
In the “Cloud Standardisation and Open-Source for a Robust Digital Cloud Landscape” that followed afterwards, the following panelists discussed trends in Cloud Standardisation and Open-Source with moderator Giovanni Rimassa, CIO of Martel Innovate:
- Alessandro Perilli, Senior Director, Automation Strategy, Red Hat
- Antonio Kung, CEO, Trialog
- Rob Gibbon, Product Manager, Canonical
- Jesús Luna, Cloud Security and Certification Expert, Bosch
- Leire Orue-Echevarria, Project Director / ICT DivisionTecnalia.
The day ended with an inspiring session introducing success stories, best practises, and use cases from the European Cloud Community. The session was moderated by Carla Arend, Senior Program Director: Lead Analyst, Cloud in Europe, IDC, and the following speakers presented their Cloud innovations:
- Geert Machtelinckx, Business Development and Project Management, Threefold Tech
- Alberto P. Martí, VP of Open Source Community Relations, OpenNebula
- Patrizio Dazzi, Researcher, ISTI-CNR
- Konstantinos Tserpes, Associate Professor, Harokopio University of Athens.
DAY 2
After a great first day full of inspiring discussions, the second day of Horizon Cloud Summit, which was moderated by Mark Dietrich, started with a Keynote Session by Klaus Ottradovetz, VP Global Service Delivery, ATOS, on the Future of European Cloud Services.
Hereafter, moderator Lutz Schubert, Head of Research, IOMI University of Ulm, discussed future Cloud Computing research priorities for Europe with and experts panel consisting of:
- Klaas Wierenga, Chief Information & Technology Officer. GÉANT
- Geir Horn, Head of European ICT Projects, Oslo University
- Dumitru Roman, Senior Research Scientist, SINTEF AS
- Patrick Jauernig, Researcher, TU Darmstadt.
Focusing more on the Cloud innovators’ perspective, the Summit then continued with a panel session on Cloud innovation business acceleration in Europe. Session moderator Enrique Areizaga Sanchez, Project Manager / ICT Division, TECNALIA, led an interesting discussion among:
- Brendan Rowan, Managing Consultant, BluSpecs
- Florian Bogenschütz, CEO, Wayra
- Ruben Roex, Attorney-at-law, Timelex
- Heinrich Zetlmayer, CEO, SKAYLINK
- Julian Fischer, CEO, anynines GmbH.
Finally, the Summit offered another session on success stories, best practises, and use cases from the European Cloud Community. Moderated by Angele Giuliano, CEOAcrossLimits, the following speakers provided interesting insights:
- Ricardo Vitorino, Smart Cities R&I Manager, Ubiwhere
- Sebastian Geller, Senior Software and Method Developer, ICON Technology & Process Consulting (ICON)
- Radu Prodan, University Professor, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
- Uwe Herzog, Programme Manager, Eurescom GmbH.
The Horizon Cloud team thanks all speakers and participants for taking part in Horizon Cloud Summit 2021! We look forward to meeting you again during Horizon Cloud Summit 2022, which will take place physically from 11 – 12 May 2022 at Cloud Expo Europe, Messe Frankfurt, Germany.