IoT and multi-cloud take center stage at upcoming Cloud Foundry Summit

Cloud Foundry Foundation, a collaborative project of the Linux Foundation, is organizing the next Cloud Foundry Summit in Frankfurt (Germany), between September 26 – 28, 2016. 

In addition to regular sessions, the summit will also host three pre-conference training sessions: Cloud Foundry for Beginners, microservices on Cloud Foundry and operating a platform. 

The Cloud Foundry Foundation oversees the development of Cloud Foundry, the open source cloud computing platform as a service (PaaS). We caught up with Sam Ramji, the CEO of Cloud Foundry Foundation to learn more about the upcoming summit. Here is an edited version of that interview:

What is the central theme of the European summit?

The Cloud Foundry European Summit is focused on IoT and multi-cloud – two major IT trends Cloud Foundry is at the heart of. For multi-cloud, it’s simple – Cloud Foundry is the easiest way for Global 2000 companies to be up and running workloads on whichever public or private clouds best fit what that business is trying to do. For IoT, there is a clear spike in growth of this industry across Europe. With companies like Bosch, Siemens, GE, and VW (to name a few) using Cloud Foundry as the platform for IoT, and Germany’s focus on Industry 4.0, it’s sure to be a big topic of conversation for our Frankfurt event. 

What is CF’s strategy towards IoT, where cloud plays the central role?

Our strategy for IoT is to be the platform used to build intelligent apps in a world of connected devices.  Cloud Foundry currently powers a range of IoT devices, from cars (Daimler, Bosch, and Ford) to aircraft engines (GE) to large immobile machines (Siemens). These fields of use are so broad, they are driving enterprises to shift their underlying business models.  GE has shifted to being a digital business and is doing so with GE Predix, a Cloud Foundry Certified platform. Momentum is building with large organizations adopting Cloud Foundry as their choice to build IoT applications. In a cloud-first world, Cloud Foundry offers unrivaled focus on building and iterating on applications, at the speed of business.

Who are you targeting with this summit?

We welcome our entire ecosystem and those new to Cloud Foundry to join us in Frankfurt. The people who will derive the most value from this event are developers, operators, and business leaders looking to make the shift to a cloud native environment for enterprise apps. At our event last year, we saw a combination of all three audiences and we anticipate a similar mix this year.

What kind of PaaS adoption is there in Europe?

Platforms are gaining serious momentum in Europe. We’re seeing European governments adopt these strategies (including the Dutch Government, who will be a keynote at the Frankfurt Summit) and the UK Government, who recently announced they are standardizing on Cloud Foundry. In addition, we expect to see dozens of European companies – most of whom are already using Cloud Foundry via certified providers such as SAP and Swisscom – join the Summit to learn more about how the technology works and how they can expand its role in their business. In fact, 76 percent of European global IT professionals and executives surveyed in our most recent study – which took place in late August – are currently either using or evaluating PaaS.