Finally several months of planning and organizing came to an end and the 2010 Global Symposium took place in Frankfurt, Germany last week. Finding me in the middle of over one hundred invited participants from telecommunication service providers and large enterprises was great. They all came to learn the latest and greatest about cloud computing and the role of Optical+Ethernet networks in this booming application space.
Without any doubt, cloud computing will considerably change the ITC industry over the coming years. It was exciting and refreshing to listen to the speakers from T-Systems, Colt and Salesforce.com and to learn that the cloud and its applications are reality already today, in many different flavors. And we also had some first-time experience with an ash cloud sent from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. While the ash cloud worked nicely from a theme perspective, it unfortunately prevented some guests from abroad to attend the event.
When finding Helga Hengge's presentation on climbing the Mount Everest on the afternoon agenda, many of us thought that it will have nothing to do with clouds - but way off. We all had to learn that clouds play a significant role when climbing the roof of the world and will decide about success or failure. Definitely one of the most interesting and emotional speeches I could listen to over the past years. And I've never seen before such a large audience fully concentrating on a speaker for almost one hour.
Lots of cloud topics during the day but definitely no clouds in the evening. Brazilian theme with music, dancers, drinks, cigars and everything else you need to relax from a conference day full of valuable information on technology and applications. As usual, there was too much food and too little stomach - or should I say there were lots of stomachs but all miniature stomachs.
Check the photo and video impressions below to see a flavour of the day. It was a great event for the European telecom society and we are all looking forward to the 2011 Global Symposium to learn next year's latest and greatest about Optical+Ethernet and its applications.
