The latest Gartner report suggests that the cloud market is going to grow an astonishing 17.3% ($206 billion) in 2019, up from $175.8 billion in 2018. By 2022, the report claims, 90% of organizations will be using cloud services. But the cloud isn’t one thing, and 2019 is likely to bring the diversity of solutions, from hybrid to multi-cloud, to serverless, to the fore.
With such a mix of opportunities and emerging trends, it’s going to be essential to keep a close eye on key cloud computing and software infrastructure conferences throughout the year. These are the events where we’ll hear the most important announcements, and they’ll probably also be the place where the most important conversations happen too.
But with so many cloud computing conferences dotted throughout the year, it’s hard to know where to focus your attention. For that very reason, we’ve put together a list of some of the best cloud computing conferences taking place in 2019.
When and where is Google Cloud Next 2019 happening?
April 9-11 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
What is it?
This is Google’s annual global conference focusing on the company’s cloud services and products, namely Google Cloud Platform. At previous events, Google has announced enterprise products such as G Suite and Developer Tools. The three-day conference features demonstrations, keynotes, announcements, conversations, and boot camps.
What’s happening at Google Cloud Next 2019?
This year Google Cloud Next has more than 450 sessions scheduled. You can also meet directly with Google experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning, security, and software infrastructure. Themes covered this year include application development, architecture, collaboration, and productivity, compute, cost management, DevOps and SRE, hybrid cloud, and serverless.
The conference may also serve as a debut platform for new Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
Who’s it for?
The event is a not-to-miss event for IT professionals and engineers, but it will also likely attract entrepreneurs. For those of us who won’t attend, Google Cloud Next will certainly be one of the most important conferences to follow. Early bird registration begins from March 1 for $999.
When and where is OpenStack Infrastructure Summit 2019 happening?
April 29 - May 1 in Denver.
What is it?
The OpenStack Infrastructure Summit, previously the OpenStack Summit, is focused on open infrastructure integration and has evolved over the years to cover more than 30 different open source projects. The event is structured around use cases, training, and related open source projects.
The summit also conducts Project Teams Gathering, just after the main conference (this year May 2-4). PTG provides meeting facilities, allowing various technical teams contributing to OSF (Open Science Framework) projects to meet in person, exchange ideas and get work done in a productive setting.
What’s happening at this year’s OpenStack Infrastructure Summit?
This year the summit is expected to have almost 300 sessions and workshops on Container Infrastructure, CI/CD, Telecom + NFV, Public Cloud, Private & Hybrid Cloud, Security etc. The Summit is going to have members of open source communities like Airship, Ansible, Ceph, Docker, Kata Containers, Kubernetes, ONAP, OpenStack, Open vSwitch, OPNFV, StarlingX, Zuul among other topics.
Who’s it for?
This is an event for engineers working in operations and administration. If you’re interested in OpenStack and how the foundation fits into the modern cloud landscape there will certainly be something here for you.
When and where is DockerCon 2019 happening?
April 29 to May 2 at Moscone West, San Francisco.
What is it?
DockerCon is perhaps the container event of the year. The focus is on what’s happening across the Docker world, but it will offer plenty of opportunities to explore the ways Docker is interacting and evolving with a wider ecosystem of tools.
What’s happening at DockerCon 2019?
This three-day conference will feature networking opportunities and hands-on labs. It will also hold an exposition where innovators will showcase their latest products. It’s expected to have over 6,000 attendees with 5+ tracks and 100 sessions. You’ll also have the opportunity to become a Docker Certified Associate with an on-venue test.
Who’s it for?
The event is essential for anyone working in and around containers - so DevOps, SRE, administration and infrastructure engineers. Of course, with Docker finding its way into the toolsets of a variety of roles, it may be useful for people who want to understand how Docker might change the way they work in the future. Pricing for DockerCon runs from around $1080 for early-bird reservations to $1350 for standard tickets.
When and where is Red Hat Summit 2019 happening?
May 7–9 in Boston.
What is it?
Red Hat Summit is an open source technology event run by Red Hat. It covers a wide range of topics and issues, essentially providing a snapshot of where the open source world is at the moment and where it might be going. With open source shaping cloud and other related trends, it’s easy to see why the event could be important for anyone with an interest in cloud and infrastructure.
What’s happening at Red Hat Summit 2019?
The theme for this year is AND. The copy on the event’s website reads: AND is about scaling your technology and culture in whatever size or direction you need, when you need to, with what you actually need―not a bunch of bulky add-ons. From the right foundation―an open foundation―AND adapts with you. It’s interoperable, adjustable, elastic. Think Linux AND Containers. Think public AND private cloud. Think Red Hat AND you. There’s clearly an interesting conceptual proposition at the center of this year’s event that hints at how Red Hat wants to get engineers and technology buyers to think about the tools they use and how they use them.
Who’s it for?
The event is big for any admin or engineer that works with open source technology - Linux in particular (so, quite a lot of people…). Given Red Hat was bought by IBM just a few months ago in 2018, this event will certainly be worth watching for anyone interested in the evolution of both companies as well as open source software more broadly.
When and where is KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2019?
May 20 to 23 at Fira Barcelona.
What is it?
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is CCNF’s (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) flagship conference for open source and cloud-native communities. It features contributors from cloud-native applications and computing, containers, microservices, central orchestration processing, and related projects to further cloud-native education of technologies that support the cloud-native ecosystem.
What’s happening at this year’s KubeCon?
The conference will feature a range of events and sessions from industry experts, project leaders, as well as sponsors. The details of the conference still need development, but the focus will be on projects such as Kubernetes (obviously), Prometheus, Linkerd, and CoreDNS.
Who’s it for?
The conference is relevant to anyone with an interest in software infrastructure. It’s likely to be instructive and insightful for those working in SRE, DevOps and administration, but because of Kubernetes importance in cloud native practices, there will be something here for many others in the technology industry. . The cost is unconfirmed, but it can be anywhere between $150 and $1,100.
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When and where is the IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing?
July 8-13 in Milan.
What is it?
This is an IEEE conference solely dedicated to Cloud computing. IEEE Cloud is basically for research practitioners to exchange their findings on the latest cloud computing advances. It includes findings across all “as a service” categories, including network, infrastructure, platform, software, and function.
What’s happening at the IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing?
IEEE cloud 2019 invites original research papers addressing all aspects of cloud computing technology, systems, applications, and business innovations. These are mostly based on technical topics including cloud as a service, cloud applications, cloud infrastructure, cloud computing architectures, cloud management, and operations.
Shangguang Wang and Stephan Reiff-Marganiec have been appointed as congress workshops chairs. Featured keynote speakers for the 2019 World Congress on Services include Kathryn Guarini, VP at IBM Industry Research and Joseph Sifakis, the Emeritus Senior CNRS Researcher at Verimag.
Who’s it for?
The conference has a more academic bent than the others on this list. That means it’s particularly important for researchers in the field, but there will undoubtedly be lots here for industry practitioners that want to find new perspectives on the relationship between cloud computing and business.
When and where is VMWorld 2019?
August 25 - 29 in San Francisco.
What is it?
VMworld is a virtualization and cloud computing conference, hosted by VMware. It is the largest virtualization-specific event. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and the executive team typically provide updates on the company’s various business strategies, including multi-cloud management, VMware Cloud for AWS, end-user productivity, security, mobile, and other efforts.
What’s happening at VMworld 2019?
The 5-day conference starts with general sessions on IT and business. It then goes deeper into breakout sessions, expert panels, and quick talks. It also holds various VMware Hands-on Labs and VMware Certification opportunities as well as one-on-one appointments with in-house experts. The expected attendee is over 21000+.
Who’s it for?
VMworld maybe doesn’t have the glitz and glamor of an event like DockerCon or KubeCon, but for administrators and technological decision makers that have an interest in VMware’s products and services.
When and where is Microsoft Ignite 2019?
November 4-8 at Orlando, Florida
What is it?
Ignite is Microsoft's flagship enterprise event for everything cloud, data, business intelligence, teamwork, and productivity.
What’s happening at Microsoft Ignite 2019?
Microsoft Ignite 2019 is expected to feature almost 700 + deep-dive sessions and 100 + expert-led and self-paced workshops. The full agenda will be posted sometime in Spring 2019. You can pre-register for Ignite 2019 here. Microsoft will also be touring many cities around the world to bring the Ignite experience to more people.
Who’s it for?
The event should have wide appeal, and will likely reflect Microsoft’s efforts to bring a range of tech professionals into the ecosystem. Whether you’re a developer, infrastructure engineer, or operations manager, Ignite is, at the very least, an event you should pay attention to.
When and where is Dreamforce 2019?
November 19-22, in San Francisco.
What is it?
Dreamforce, hosted by Salesforce, is a truly huge conference, attended by more than 100,000 people.. Focusing on Salesforce and CRM, the event is an opportunity to learn from experts, share experiences and ideas, and to stay up to speed with the trends in the field, like automation and artificial intelligence.
What’s happening at Dreamforce 2019?
Dreamforce covers over 25 keynotes, a vast range of breakout sessions (almost 2700) and plenty of opportunities for networking. The conference is so extensive that it has its own app to help delegates manage their agenda and navigate venues.
Who’s it for?
Dreamforce is primarily about Salesforce - for that reason, it’s very much an event for customers and users. But given the size of the event, it also offers a great deal of insight on how businesses are using SaaS products and what they expect from them. This means there is plenty for those working in more technical or product roles to learn at the event..
When and where is Amazon re:invent 2019?
December 2-6 at The Venetian, Las Vegas, USA
What is it?
Amazon re:invent is hosted by AWS. If you’ve been living on mars in recent years, AWS is the market leader when it comes to cloud. The event, then, is AWS’ opportunity to set the agenda for the cloud landscape, announcing updates and new features, as well as an opportunity to discuss the future of the platform.
What’s happening at Amazon re:invent 2019?
Around 40,000 people typically attend Amazon’s top cloud event. Amazon Web Services and its cloud-focused partners typically reveal product releases on several fronts. Some of these include enterprise security, Transit Virtual Private Cloud service, and general releases.
This year, Amazon is also launching a related conference dedicated exclusively to cloud security called re:Inforce. The inaugural event will take place in Boston on June 25th and 26th, 2019 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Who’s it for?
The conference attracts Amazon’s top customers, software distribution partners (ISVs) and public cloud MSPs. The event is essential for developers and engineers, administrators, architects, and decision makers. Given the importance of AWS in the broader technology ecosystem, this is an event that will be well worth tracking, wherever you are in the world.
Did we miss an important cloud computing conference? Are you attending any of these this year? Let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear from you. Also, check this space for more detailed coverage of the conferences.
Cloud computing trends in 2019
Key trends in software development in 2019: cloud native and the shrinking stack
Key trends in software infrastructure in 2019: observability, chaos, and cloud complexity
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