Wednesday 15 May 2013

EuroCloud Germany – Conference 2013


There is probably no more agile and informative promoter of using and profiting from Cloud technologies in Europe than EuroCloud. EuroCloud cover the full spectrum from creating awareness on the benefits of Cloud technologies to actual requirements gathering for future innovation around the Cloud. In this context, EuroCloud also actively contribute to the work done at ETSI's for defining a Cloud standards map for Europe.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being invited at the EuroCloud Germany annual conference 2013. In my role as co-facilitator of the ETSI standards mapping activity I was invited to speak about Cloud standardisation and the Cloud Standards Coordination. I tried to paint a picture of the Cloud standardisation landscape with some special focus on the fact that a large number of Cloud standards are already available and the actual task is to identify them and prepare for combining them into Cloud solutions. I stressed that standardisation Is going new ways in Cloud with partnering and collaborating closely with customers, e.g. in the Cloud Standards Customer Council, and in taking a community approach for an open Cloud platform as done in the OpenStack Foundation. My slides are available on silde share: 


The programme of the conference was extremely good with a number of high level speakers and excellent presentations. Some of my take-aways are:
  • Cloud technologies are not just a business for CTOs or CIOs in companies, they need to be addressed at the CEO and COO level.
  • It is important to demonstrate to potential Cloud users the actual applications and solutions they can achieve by using the Cloud.
  • Let's not talk Cloud technology more complex than it is – otherwise users will be frightened off.
  • Trust and security are key aspects for Cloud users.
  • Vendor lock-in will not help in achieving a broad uptake of Cloud technologies.
All in all really a great and informative conference. Congratulations to the organisers.

Thursday 9 May 2013

Great new OpenForum Academy publicatoin available

For all who are interested in openness, innovation and standardisation, there is a new collection of papers and essays available from OpenForum Academy titled "Thoughts on Open Innovation". The book, which was edited by Shane Coughlan, has just been published online on the OpenForum Academy website.

The different essays address a large number of what is currently hot in the public discourse - including open data, questions around IPRs, Open Source, etc. There is an excellent introductory section written by Karel de Vriendt. I also contributed a chapter focussing on different IPR regimes in standardisation and their relation to innovation - it's titled "Getting Requirements Right: Towards a Nuanced Approach on Standardisation and IPRs".

Take a look at the book. You can easily download it - or order a printed copy if you prefer. Definitely worth reading.