Cloud Computing Standards and Interoperability: How to avoid lock-in in a cloud environment

When?

Thursday 13 November 2014, 3 pm to 6 pm followed by a reception

Where?

Sofitel Brussels Europe, Place Jourdan 1, 1040 Brussels

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems invites you to its annual symposium, this year presenting its white paper on the benefits of standards and interoperability among cloud providers, which is intended to help users avoid being locked into a single vendor.

The paper looks at the way the architecture of the cloud evolved and how governments and enterprises  can assess to what degree proprietary approaches are used, which can make it difficult or expensive to move to a competitor.

The first panel will run through the findings of the paper and discuss its implications. The second panel – comprising the European Commission, the Norwegian government, and a private sector SME cloud provider – will debate what the implications are for their organisations and look wider at other policy issues, what it means to be open in the cloud and the evolution of the Commission’s cloud strategy.

The ECIS perspective is that standards, compatibility and interoperability are needed to assure the potential of cloud computing is fully realised in Europe.

The symposium will be followed by a reception.

Agenda

15.00
Welcome by Thomas Vinje, ECIS Legal Counsel and Spokesman

15.15
Session I: Presentation of ECIS’ white paper on ‘Ensuring a thriving cloud services market: Why interoperability matters for business and government’

Speakers

Mark Terranova
Director of Competitive Intelligence, Software Group, IBM

Paul Brownell
EMEA Public Policy Director, Red Hat

Moderated by Aoife White, reporter, Bloomberg

16.15
Session II: Considering exit and migration issues in the cloud – the policy-makers’, the developers’, and the users’ perspective

A debate on the issues raised by ECIS’ white paper

Speakers

Katarina de Brisis
Deputy Director General with responsibility for the Cloud, Ministry of Government Administration and Reform, Norway

Nicky Stewart
Commercial Director, Skyscape

Graham Taylor
Chief Executive, OpenForum Europe

Pearse o’ Donohue
Head of Unit, Software and Services, Cloud, European Commission

Professor Ian Walden
Professor of Information and Communications Law, Queen Mary University of London

Moderated by Peter Linton, Senior Adviser, Burson Marsteller

Closing Remarks: Thomas Vinje
ECIS Legal Counsel and Spokesman

18.00
Networking cocktail
Please join us afterwards for a cocktail and canapé networking reception, providing an opportunity to speak with some of our speakers about issues raised during the debate.

Please RSVP to info@ecis.eu, or telephone Jessica Kersten  at +32 (0) 2 533 5085