In front of more than 300 Cloud experts from 23 European member states and from around the world, EuroCloud President Bernd Becker opened the EuroCloud Congress in Kirchberg/Luxembourg on the 15th October. In his keynote he stressed that “traditionally, customers choose on the basis of the functionality and advantages offered, and it is the same for IT. But increasingly the deployment model Cloud Computing is the decisive factor, especially when flexibility, agility and synergies are required in decentralized and international structures. The EU Cloud Strategy’s objective of harmonization and standardization is preparing the way for this, even though it is still a long way from its goal. There are still many tasks for us all, such as topics like license conversion, comprehensive Cloud supply chains and the amendment of insolvency law.” In the evening EuroCloud Europe also honored Europe’s best Cloud services and companies with the EuroCloud Europe Award 2013, presented in five categories.

The top-class speakers at the EuroCloud Congress were as international as the visitors. In three parallel tracks, they offered interesting insights into Cloud challenges and solutions in diverse European states, and the global relevance was acknowledged in special sessions with representatives from China, Japan and the USA. Through these, participants were exposed to stimulating ideas and practical guidelines. This year, the EuroCloud Congress was colocated with two external events to further increase the networking and knowledge available to delegates: The OASIS International Cloud Symposium 2013, with a focus on Cloud standardization, and the MO-BIZZ Workshop, an EU-funded project in which a European strategy for the mobile Cloud was discussed in detail.

Status quo of the European Cloud Partnership (ECP)
One of the highlights was the keynote by Ken Ducatel from the European Commission’s DG Connect. He explained what the Commission has so far undertaken towards the implementation of its Europe-wide Cloud strategy. He went into detail about certification, standardization, data protection and the development of model contracts.

In another fascinating keynote, Linda Strick, from Fraunhofer FOKUS and Project Leader of CloudforEurope, explained this EU-funded project in more detail. She noted that the goal is to create clarity over the requirements and user-scenarios for Cloud Computing in the public sector. The project brings together 23 public sector and industry partners from 11 countries, to identify obstacles, find innovative solutions and build trust in European Cloud Computing. EuroCloud is also actively involved in the project kick-off, which will take place on the 14th and 15th of November in Berlin.

Third Presentation of the EuroCloud Europe Awards
A further high point followed in the evening: The presentation of the EuroCloud Europe Award 2013. Around 50 winners of the national EuroCloud Awards from twelve European member states introduced themselves to the European jury, with a view to winning the coveted prize. “With so many high-quality Cloud solutions, it was a difficult decision – after all, only the best of the best could even apply”, explained Bernd Becker. The performance and quality standards were impressive, in the eyes of the jury.

The independent international Cloud Jury honored the following companies with the EuroCloud Europe Award 2013:

In the category Best Cloud Service Product:

• SmartCloudPT from PT Comunicações, SA (Portugal)

SmartCloudPT represents an innovative approach to the IT market, leveraging a revamped and extensive Cloud portfolio with self provisioning functionalities to cater to customer needs. Thanks to the Self-Care Portal, customers can inform themselves about services and test them out around the clock. SmartCloudPT is easy to use, cost-effective, highly available through the modern infrastructure of Portugal Telecom, and the data is protected.

In the category Best Cloud Service Start Up:

• Esponce (Slovenia)

Esponce is a mobile engagement platform that helps companies to make cost-effective mobile engagement with their target groups through the use of QR Codes. The mix of Cloud services used for the platform enables easy creation and analysis of Marketing campaigns, which can reach (potential) customers anytime and everywhere.

In the category Best Cloud Service Use Case Private Sector:

• Nomalys from Nomalys (France)

With the app from Nomalys, company data from various sources, such as CRM, ERP and BI, can be aggregated and used in real-time and, above all, securely, when underway – the app is also compatible with any mobile device. Nomalys is revolutionizing the efficiency and reactivity of business, with all data reliably at the fingertips.

In the category Best Cloud Service Use Case Public Sector:

• EDM Environment Austria from the Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, the Environment and Water Law (Austria)

EDM is a composite system of Internet applications and databases to support complex processes in environmental protection-related documentation, notification and reporting obligations. EDM allows companies to fulfill their extensive environmental compliance obligations. Individual parts of the SaaS solution are already transnational, being used in cooperation with authorities in, for example, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. EDM ensures improved possibilities for control and more efficient processes with reduced administration, and simultaneously an improvement in environmental standards.

and for Cloud-User companies in the category Best Business Impact by Cloud Services:

• Daimler AG with Folio Cloud from fabasoft Deutschland GmbH (Germany)

Thanks to Folio Cloud’s high-performance development environment, specially designed for the quick development of business applications, the central management of certificates for Daimler AG was implemented into a Cloud app with a turnaround of just five-days. The new solution not only has significant cost and competitive advantages for all partners involved in the process, it also ensures an impressive improvement in quality and security in the handling of certificates.

Starting Shot for Cloud Innovation World Cup
In connection with the awards ceremony, the starting shot was also fired for the Cloud Innovation World Cup (http://innovationworldcup.com/cloud). In global competition, Cloud-based innovations that decisively change our daily life and work are highly sought after. The Cloud Innovation World Cup is organized by Navispace in cooperation with EuroCloud.

EuroCloud Europe Congress: High-class program again today
On the 16th October the EuroCloud Europe Congress is offering even more fascinating presentations and workshops. As a special extra, participants are offered the possibility to take part in a guided tour of the Luxembourg high-tech Cloud data centers on the 17th of October and inform themselves about the performance and efficiency of modern Tier-4 data centers. Further information can be found at www.eurocloudcongress.org.