Cloud Expo Netherlands

Since about 2008, cloud computing has seen more doors open and momentum started to increase which I guess was pushed a little buy the economic climate and the sales pitch of cloud being more financially viable. Now, we are seeing new conferences and event emerging that are cloud related. Many take place in the US, but are increasingly growing on a global scale.

Myself, having lived in Europe for the past 6 or so years has seen this go from something of just talk to real interest and implementation. We, as North Americans have always envied Europe on their relaxed lifestyles, great beaches, cultured cuisine and much more.

Lately, I've noticed a grass root approach whereby there seems to be a lot of localization when it comes to providing cloud oriented services. Lets take Cloud Expo which was held around the beginning of the second week of December 2010. The location was Utrecht (about 30 min train ride from Amsterdam). As I arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was kinda small. You could zip around the tradeshow in under 5 min, but there still was enough to keep you busy for a little while.

One main issue was that all copy/material was in Dutch, but the good thing was that even if I could not understand any of it, about 90%+ of the Dutch population speaks English. Wonderful news! The big names were there of course like Cisco and Microsoft and a few other booths offering PaaS and IaaS services. I guess the highlight of my time there was being able to speak with Ajax.org and to find out what others had to offer.

Getting back to grassroots. 95% of the companies there were local and the ones that weren't, were larger companies with offices in the Netherlands. The approach felt more personal as the Dutch still do business face to face and the comfort and security of knowing that if they need something, all they have to do is call or go to the office. It made me think, with all this remote talk going on, are we becoming more distant from physically interacting. Well, that's something to discuss for another day.

I just wanted to add that it was an enjoyable conference and it was a unique experience, though it did feel more people were trying to sell you rather than buy from you.