Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Despite the lateness of the day, the suitcases lined up along the walls, the work and family duties calling, and minds exhausted from 2.5 days of stimulation from presentations, workshops, and discussion, the majority of Higher Education Cloud Forum 2024 attendees stayed to the end to wrap up with the annual pluses and deltas discussion. Discussing topics ranging from how to better source ideas for the unconference to whether the “heavy hors d’oeuvres” at our reception constituted a meal, the group was just as engaged as it had been all week.
What is it that keeps these weary clouds from drifting away?
The Content
We opened with a welcome from Stanford CIO Steve Gallagher before jumping right into the annual State of the Cloud Survey results, presented by William & Mary’s Phil Fenstermacher. The schedule continued with presentations, a research panel, an unconference, and a FinOps workshop led by the University of Central Florida’s Jonathan White.
We had over a dozen excellent presentations, provoking discussion, many laughs, and no small amount of empathy. Highlights included:
- Telling Our Story: The Somewhat Painful, Probably Never-Ending Search for Cloud Metrics – Rick Rhoades, Penn State (Slides | Recording)
- Leveraging the Cloud in Response to Campus Demands for AI -– Tim Werth, Purdue Global (Slides | Recording)
- Landing Zone Accelerator at CU Boulder – Jason Armbruster, University of Colorado, Boulder (Slides | Recording)
- Overcoming Nephophobia: Case Studies – Kari Robertson, University of California Office of the President (Slides)
The unconference and FinOps workshop featured small group breakouts leading to in-depth discussion and debate. Unconference topics included:
- hybrid cloud
- cloud security operations
- talent management
- moving out of the cloud
- secure enclaves
This year’s research presentations and the following panel discussion opened with remarks from Ruth Marinshaw, chief technology officer of Stanford Research Computing. The researchers were interesting and engaging, and the panel, moderated by CU Boulder’s Jason Armbruster, was frank and informative. Unlike previous years, we put all of the researchers in a single block and made them available to a virtual audience with the assistance of the excellent Stanford AV team.
The Connection
The 2024 Cloud Forum, hosted this year by Lucrecia Kim-Boswell and her colleagues at Stanford University, was our 10th annual and marked a moment for reflection and celebration. People come back to the Cloud Forum year after year, not only for the valuable exchange of ideas but also for professional networking and rewarding friendships. This year’s reception was held at the Computer History Museum. It gave us a chance to celebrate our anniversary in style. Where better for dozens of geeks to bond over the Atari 2600 and the Coleco Vision, ENIAC, UNIVAC, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, and so much more?
We’ve racked up some impressive numbers in the Cloud Forum’s 10 years. We’ve had 616 individuals from 165 organizations attend. This year alone, we had 100 individuals from 55 organizations, collectively representing 388 years of Cloud Forum experience. This year’s attendee badges featured colorful numbers reflecting how many times they’d attended, from the 42 first-timers to the two “10-timers.” First among those veterans is Cloud Forum founder Sarah Christen, deputy CIO for Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine. At this year’s event, Sarah was recognized as an Internet2 Cloud Superhero for her pioneering community contributions. I happen to be the other 10 on the list (interpret that however you will!). We had several 6s, 7s, and 8s at this year’s event, but strangely no 9s.