This is what happened at CloudFest’s 20th Anniversary festival—We hope you didn’t miss it!
In March 2024, over 9,000 Cloud, hosting, datacenter, domain name, and open source experts gathered at Europa-Park to move the internet infrastructure industry forward in the most fun way imaginable. CloudFest threw its biggest festival yet, celebrating its 20th Anniversary in style!
Under the theme of Uniting the Nations of Cloud, the builders of the modern internet explored how collaboration and partnership help break the barriers of innovation. It’s impossible to share everything that happens at CloudFest in one article, but we’ll fit in as many highlights as we can!
So How Did the 20th Anniversary Event Go?
Day Zero: Open Source and AI
While technically CloudFest has three main days of programming, we also have a “Day Zero” that focuses on specific platforms and technologies that drive the Cloud. Dovetailing with the 2024 CloudFest Hackathon, Day Zero featured AlmaLinux, WordPress, and AI (do we really have to tell you what “AI” stands for at this point?)
At WP Day, open source developers and leaders connected to move the WordPress ecosystem forward. AlmaLinux Day featured deep dives into this enterprise-grade pillar of the modern internet. “You get to talk to people you’d normally never get to talk to,” said Benny Vasquez, Chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation’s Board of Directors. “You get to engage in a way that is much more personal and much more direct.”
The Intel AI Summit featured rapid-fire sessions to get the crowd up to speed on the latest developments and best practices around artificial intelligence, ideas which would be cemented in the days to come. “The most surprising part was really the interest in the topic of AI, and we had a lot of people here, and I had a lot of good discussions with the people there,” said Stephan Gillich, Head of EMEA AI Center of Excellence at Intel. (For the record, we were not surprised by the huge amount of interest in how AI and the Cloud will fit together!)
That night, the Come2Gather in the Streets party took over Europa-Park’s main plaza. The highlight was a rocking performance by the Lords of Uptime, a band made up of internet infrastructure industry leaders—plus special guest drummer Marky Ramone! That’s right, from The Ramones!
Day 1: Cybersecurity and Networks
On Day 1, the main program began—with the Cloud Fair exhibit hall and the main stages in full swing. “It’s such an exciting and vibrant atmosphere!” said Roland Kunz, EMEA Principal System Engineer at Dell Technologies. Indeed, the mood was electric as thousands of internet infrastructure professionals made their way into the main venue, grabbed some coffee, and got into the action. All three main days of CloudFest featured hands-on masterclasses and interactive Barcamp sessions, as well as plenty of activity in the meeting rooms and 1on1 tables. After all, this entire event is built around networking and facilitating meaningful connections.
One of the Day 1 highlights was definitely Jürgen Schmidhuber, widely considered “the father of AI”. Attendees got to experience a conversation about the true risks of AI, its near-term potential, and what happens when AIs set their own goals.
That night, the crowd rocked to an ABBA cover band, and then partied into the early hours at the Colosseo Bar, which has become legendary in the Cloud as a place where deals happen.
Day 2: Hardware and AI
The second day of CloudFest 2024 focused on the relationship between the hardware that keeps the global internet moving and the artificial intelligence that’s changing the game for every aspect of digital life.
This day also featured the State of the Cloud Report, which leveraged the collective experience of the CloudFest community to quantify how the internet infrastructure industry sees this present moment—as well as the near future.
“I’m so impressed by how people turn out for this event. Everyone is so excited!” said Brooke Edge, Consumer and Brand Research Partner at Open Eye and creator of the State of the Cloud report. “They bring good questions, they bring good conversation. They bring great ideas, and to see this was the biggest audience yet made it just even more fun.” (Pro tip: keep reading if you want to get this report for yourself.)
Another highlight was the conversation with Eliot Higgins, founder of investigative-journalism platform Bellingcat. He addressed what those working in the Cloud can do as business leaders and as people to make the internet safe for truth again. He also touched upon parenting, white-hat hacking, and some rather unsettling horror-movie imagery!
The World Server Throwing Championship was also inaugurated on this historic day. The World Server Throwing Association (WSTA) brought this intense underground sport, which has been criticized as “needlessly brutal to servers”, into the mainstream for the whole Cloud community to enjoy. Expect even more intense competition in 2025!
That night, the now-legendary ConneXion Party featured a fireworks show to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of CloudFest. (CEO Christian Jaeger laughed when he described it as “the most expensive 60 seconds in our history!” 😀 )
The ConneXion Party is usually the crescendo of networking at CloudFest: it’s a BIG night, and we encourage all attendees to pace themselves!
Day 3: The Services that Matter
The final day of CloudFest 2024 focused on value-added services that help providers differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace. Day 3 is also our day of Internet Heroes!
This year we featured three proper legends:
- Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor, who is responsible for the first commercial internet connectivity throughout Africa; and has pioneered its continued development and expansion
- Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS)
- Steve Crocker, one of the key contributors to the ARPANET project—the precursor to the modern internet
The final session was a real show-stopper as Dr. Auma Obama inspired the largest closing-session audience we’ve had so far to create their own futures through proactive leadership and mindful responsibility.
For the closing party, BierFest delivered a Munich beer garden experience—complete with whip-cracking and live music—to a thirsty crowd!
“CloudFest is breaking the record every year. More and more attendees,” said Jan Löffler, CTO of WebPros: he loves-loves-loves to connect with his customers at CloudFest!
Startup Area and Rollercoaster Pitches
CloudFest isn’t only for established giants in the internet infrastructure industry: this festival features startups as well! Each year, a perhaps-surprising number of young companies emerge who service the Cloud, and the best place to meet them is at CloudFest. Besides a dedicated area in the Cloud Fair, these innovators take part in the Startup Pitch Competition, which culminates with the Rollercoaster Pitches—these are exactly what you think they are! Hang on to your hats…
“I would say CloudFest exceeded our expectations,” said Oren Todoros, Head of Strategy at Spike. “I think we’ve met some very interesting people, a lot of open feedback, good suggestions. And so, opportunities that we didn’t even expect. “
CloudFest is all about opportunities: the opportunity to learn, the opportunity to connect, and the opportunity to form the partnerships that can only happen in such an inspiring environment.
When is the Next CloudFest?!
If you’re feeling the pain of FOMO, there’s only one known cure: make sure to attend the next CloudFest event! CloudFest 2025 takes place March 17-20 at Europa-Park in Germany. Tickets start at 499€, but Cloud professionals can almost always get a free Standard Pass… for example by using the code CF2025GO when they register…
TL;DR Version: The CloudFest 2024 Recap Video
We also have an overall CloudFest 2024 recap video, which we’re placing way down here—because we wrote so many words up there!
Stay Tuned: There is Always More CloudFest!
When you subscribe to the CloudFest newsletter, you’ll get all the relevant updates for each upcoming festival— as well as a free download of the 2024 State of the Cloud Report, which surveyed over 1,000 Cloud experts to share their insights, goals, and pain points. If you work in the Cloud, this report will be a key element in your business-intelligence toolkit. This is part of our philosophy of providing a year-round experience for our community.
