The year 2024 was characterised by a dynamically developing environment at EuroCloud Deutschland_eco. Several factors played a role in this. For example, the increasing spread of AI systems gave the cloud market an additional boost, leading to noticeable growth. At the same time, the continuing rise in the number of cyber incidents highlighted the vulnerability of digital infrastructures. The year was therefore also characterised by new regulations such as the NIS2 Directive, which is a response to these threats. The Data Act, the AI Act and the Cyber Resilience Act, all of which are relevant to cloud computing, also came into force in 2024, although they will not become applicable law until the following year. Last but not least, the discussion about digital sovereignty in cloud use continued to gather pace.

These developments were not entirely new, but had already been on the horizon. EuroCloud reacted to this and set the course for the future as early as 2023. At a strategy meeting in September of that year, the association’s direction for the next three years was mapped out. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity were defined as further strategic focus topics. In terms of positioning, EuroCloud sees itself as a professional association for cloud computing in Germany and represents the providers of cloud services as well as their consulting, integration and solution partners.

A year of implementation

As a result, 2024 at EuroCloud was largely determined by the implementation of what had been developed as the strategic direction the year before. For example, the association worked intensively on the AI Act. The events organised as part of the “AI in Practice” initiative met with lively interest, as did the white paper (“AI Act – What are we actually talking about?”) produced in collaboration with members.

EuroCloud also focused intensively on the topic of Confidential Computing. The concept enables workloads to be operated in protected environments to which even the cloud provider has no administrative access. Together with members, the association has also written a white paper on this topic (“Confidential Computing – Secure and Sovereign in the Cloud”). The more critical data is processed in the cloud, the more important the concept becomes.

The “EuroCloud Pulse Check” (formerly: “ECN Pulse Check”) confirmed the extent to which German companies now view the cloud as an enabler for digital business models. The association conducted the study for the fourth time in cooperation with techConsult. It also made it clear that sovereignty is becoming increasingly important to customers when using the cloud.

New formats and platforms

However, the increasing maturity of the cloud market is also leading to consolidation effects. For example, some members of the EuroCloud Native (ECN) initiative have been taken over by established service providers, who have thus expanded their cloud expertise or have merged into larger groups. On the other hand, other target groups are increasingly becoming the focus of EuroCloud: system integrators and software providers, who are coming under pressure to transform themselves into managed service providers or SaaS providers as a result of the move towards X-as-a-Service. New concepts were developed for both target groups in 2024, which are on the agenda for 2025. This will establish new formats.

In order to offer the association’s various target groups a joint networking platform, the association organised a physical event for all members for the first time in a long time in 2024. With the “EuroCloud Summit 2024”, the cloud community was hosted by Adacor Hosting in Offenbach on 26 September. The winners of the EuroCloud Awards were determined on site. A consortium of Adacor, ATLAS IoT Lab and enclaive won twice, in the categories “Sustainable” and “Best Cooperation Project”. The award for “Human Empowerment” was won by tecRacer. And gridscale came out on top as “EuroCloud Member of the Year”.

A number of smaller events, webinars and meet-ups also took place in 2024; the Cloud Legal Meet-ups, at which Dr. Jens Eckhardt, IT specialist lawyer and EuroCloud Board member, provided information on current legal topics four times a year, were once again particularly popular. The association also presented itself at industry events such as the Service Provider Summit and the Cloud Native Conference, both organised by the Vogel IT Academy, which took place in May on Petersberg near Bonn and in Eppstein (Taunus) respectively, as well as at Cloud Expo Europe in Frankfurt in June.