CloudFest is the world’s largest Cloud Computing and Web Hosting conference. What started as a single WebHostingDay back in 2004 in Cologne, Germany, has evolved into an international three-day Cloud Festival, all taking place in Germany’s largest theme park, Europa Park!
Ask anyone that has attended, and we are sure they will have plenty of stories about the excellent sessions, networking, and of course, late-night parties! We are also sure you would love to get out and have some fun right now with your co-workers and a few thousand others, but just like last year, COVID changed our travel plans.
While 2020 left a massive void in many conference schedules, CloudFest has moved to a 100% online conference platform this year. Unlike many virtual conferences, CloudFest has not scaled back its content or entertainment and is offering a full three days of sessions, networking, workshops, expo hall, and of course, parties in a festival atmosphere. The best thing about CloudFest 2021 Online is the price. Usually, CloudFest can set you back a few hundred to thousands of dollars for the entry fee, travel, and accommodations, but this year, it is free, or pay what you want.
In the past years, CloudFest has focused on a single theme throughout the event, such as Hyperscalers in 2019. This year they are taking the theme to the extreme with three separate themed days!
- The Intelligent Cloud: The Intelligent Cloud empowers AI to manage and distribute complex workloads with smart tools that make interoperability and scale more cost-effective and efficient.
- Web Pros in the Cloud: Web Professionals specialize in design and creativity.
- The Secure Cloud: Safety is the #1 rule, and the threat landscape grows ever more complex.
There is no doubt that this year’s CloudFest content has something for everyone in the web industry.
CloudFest 2021 Talks:
This year’s keynote sessions won’t disappoint with speakers from Intel, Toshiba, 1&1, Dell, VMWare, PlusServer Group, Datacore, Samsung, Acronis, Verisign, WIX, Sectigo, Duda, OVHcloud, and more.
CloudFest Online isn’t just keynote sessions but also offers an additional breakout track with talks on Hosting, Data Structure, AI, Cloud Services, Security, Design, Content Management Systems, and more.
cPanel will be attending the conference all three days with several talks from cPanel and our partners at Plesk and WHMCS, all happening on the Web Pros themed second day.
- “Now is the time to Build” Keynote with cPanel and Plesk CEO Jens Meggers.
- “The calculated risk of Open Source and the hosting industry” with cPanel’s own Ken Power.
- “A Platform for Builders: How to win web developers” with Plesk’s CTO Jan Loeffler.
- “Billing for MSPs in the Age of Transformation” with Matt Pugh, CEO of WHMCS.
cPanel and Plesk are also sponsoring several Workshop based special events.
Loud in the cloud
The nightly festival entertainment is still partially under wraps, as we have seen in the past. We know now that Gus Gus, the downtempo electronic pop duo from Iceland, will be playing live at the Sectigo ConneXtion Party. It’s unclear if the bad boys of the hosting industry, the Lords of Uptime, will perform at the IBM Loud in the Cloud party, but I would place a Vegas bet on it!
Entrepreneurs for Knowledge
CloudFest 2019 kicked off its partnership with EFK and raised over 40,000 Euros to help build a new school in Guatemala along with three new classrooms for 525 students. Intel has already pledged over 3,000 Euros to the charity for 2021. For more information on the charity or to donate, visit: https://www.cloudfest.com/charity
New / Same Owners
Another significant change in 2021 is CloudFest is under new ownership, sort of. In February, CloudFest announced that GoDaddy sold its interest in WHD, and WHD would become WHD Events gmbH. After a lot of speculation, the new owners include the founders of the original event. CloudFest sent an official statement, “CloudFest is still CloudFest, and the CloudFest team is still the CloudFest team!” We are happy to hear that news and look forward to more CloudFest and Namescon events in the years to come.
A CloudFest to remember
All in, this is going to be a CloudFest to remember. We are all looking forward to getting back to Europa Park in 2022, but we can expect an incredible show from the comfort of our homes and virtual offices for now. We look forward to seeing you at CloudFest 2021! Please drop by our virtual booth, watch our talks and find us in the networking rooms. Register for free today and for the full schedule and happenings, visit: https://www.cloudfest.com/agenda.
As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please let us know. We are here to help in the best ways we can. You’ll find us on Discord, the cPanel forums, and Reddit. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
