EuroCloud Deutschland_eco
The year 2023 was characterised by staff changes at EuroCloud Deutschland. At the Annual General Meeting, which took place on 29 August at the Cologne offices of the eco Association, new appointments were made to the Board. Board Member Bernd Krakau, who is now focusing on the digitalisation of public authorities as part of a new professional challenge, did not stand for re-election and stepped down from the board. During his four years in office, he contributed his noted expertise as a system house manager to the association’s work.
The eco Board appointed Dr. Nils Kaufmann as a new member of the EuroCloud Deutschland Board in place of Bernd Krakau. The hosting and cloud expert has already successfully led the EuroCloud Native (ECN) initiative, which he launched in 2020. The initiative now includes about 30 cloud native companies and 20 Alliance Partners. Together with Dr. Nils Kaufmann, who took over as Deputy Chair, Thomas Noglik (Chair), Felix Höger, Prof. Dr. Norbert Pohlmann, and Dr. Jens Eckhardt made up the EuroCloud Board, which was confirmed for a further two years.
Furthermore, eco hired Michael Hase as a new full-time employee for Eurocloud as a Senior Project Manager Cloud Computing, as of 1 November. The association has gained a proven industry expert with the very experienced specialised journalist, who most recently worked for Vogel IT-Medien as chief reporter for the magazine IT-Business. Michael Hase lives in the Munich area and is also available as a contact person for members and partners from the Bavarian region.
Strategic orientation reformulated
In terms of content, EuroCloud set the course for the future in 2023. The association’s direction for the next three years was defined at a strategy meeting on 11 September, which the entire Board attended. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity were defined as further strategic focus topics. Both topics are closely related to cloud computing and are of direct relevance to the members. In terms of positioning, EuroCloud sees itself as a professional association for cloud computing in Germany and represents the providers of cloud services and their integration and service partners.
Specific proposals for the association’s mission were also formulated during the strategy meeting: EuroCloud imparts expertise, connects the relevant players and stakeholders, and offers them platforms to exchange experiences. The association helps SMEs to overcome the challenges of integrating, managing and securing cloud services. It also develops orientation knowledge and recommendations for action and promotes dialogue with politics and business.
ECN: Study, Summit & Awards
Last year, EuroCloud published the “ECN Pulse Check” for the third time since 2021. For the cross-industry study on the cloud native market in Germany, analysts from new research partner techconsult asked more than 250 decision-makers from SMEs and large companies about their software strategies for the cloud age. The results were presented at the ECN Summit 2023 in Berlin on 28 September. According to the results, 45 per cent of companies are already pursuing a cloud native strategy. 44 per cent are planning their future accordingly.
The strategic orientation of companies towards the cloud remains a key element for digitalisation in Germany. Cloud-native processes accelerate development cycles, enabling them to react more quickly to market requirements. However, the techconsult experts still see considerable potential, as many companies are only in the middle of their digitalisation process. The study was supported by ECN members such as adesso as a service, CLOUDETEER, Continum, Deepshore, gridscale, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), plusserver and Public Cloud Group (PCG).
Members of the initiative met for the fourth time in a row at the ECN Summit. Around 70 participants travelled to Berlin for the event. The event was hosted by Alice&Bob.Company, an ECN member based there. The winners of the ECN Awards were determined on site, with CLOUDETEER (in the “Human Empowerment” category), WestfalenWIND IT (“Sustainable”), Kubermatic (“Member of the Year”) and IONOS and Stackable (“Best Cooperation Project”) emerging as the winners. The jury included Emma Wehrwein, Project Manager Digital Business Models at eco, Alina Schneider, Head of Marketing & Sustainability at PCG, Rene Wienholtz, Executive Board Member at LOOM IMPACT, Michael Hase, Dr. Nils Kaufmann and Felix Höger.
Meet-ups and industry events
In addition to the Summit, which was the largest event in EuroCloud’s calendar of events, a series of smaller events, webinars and meet-ups took place in 2023; the Cloud Legal Meet-ups, at which IT specialist lawyer Dr. Jens Eckhardt provided information on current legal topics four times a year, were once again particularly popular. The association also presented itself at industry events such as Cloud Expo Europe in Frankfurt in May and the Cloud Native Conference organised by the Vogel IT Academy, in Eppstein, also in May.
In the reporting year, 20 new companies joined the cloud association: aConTech, Cockroach Labs, Devoteam, Easyfairs Deutschland, enclaive, Frends Germany, GOLDBECK Südwest, LEANEA, Impossible Cloud, Mulan IT Solutions, OVHcloud, Plan B Management, Robert C. Spies, Route 128, SSC-Services, UNIBERG, VIRZ e. V., VISTECC, vshosting and webbar.
