Cloud Forum
Call for Proposals

The Cloud Forum 2027 Call for Proposals is Now Open

Please read through the guidance and eligibility guidelines before submitting

The annual Cloud Forum is a vital component of the research and education community’s ongoing cloud conversation. It is a venue for timely conversations about the use of hyperscale infrastructure to support and advance the mission of the research and education community.

“Cloud Forum brings together a unique community of cloud leaders, practitioners, and educators who openly share ideas, experiences, and best practices. I always leave with new insights, valuable connections, and practical ideas that I can bring back to my institution.” — Holly Yuan, University of Wisconsin–Stout

Are you building out AI gateways for your campus population on Azure? Have you started the march of your VMs from on-prem into AWS? Is your GCP Org seeing an explosion of project creation due to Gemini? Have you migrated your ERP infrastructure to OCI? Do your researchers have stories to tell about cloud-based AI tools on Jetstream2 or NAIRR resources? Do you have a couple of early adopters of cloud forcing IT to figure out how to set it up right ahead of your planned timetable? Are you just trying to figure out if cloud is the answer to any of your questions? If so, your peers want to hear about it. Share your stories. Share your lessons. Share your failures. Share your successes. At the Cloud Forum, we talk about all of it. Having trouble choosing? Submit multiple proposals!

Who Should Submit?

At the Cloud Forum we like to hear from those building and managing cloud environments and solutions in the research and education community as well as those whose work is enabled or accelerated by hyper-scale technologies. This work can be done on commercial or academic cloud platforms.

We welcome proposals submitted by those involved in enabling, supporting, managing, strategizing, or maybe just thoughtfully admiring the use of cloud computing in the research and education community. These make up the bulk of Cloud Forum content. In recent years we’ve had many proposals submitted by researchers leveraging cloud infrastructure to accelerate, analyze, or otherwise superpower their work.

Proposals to the Cloud Forum are only accepted from members of the research and education communities. No proposals from vendors or with vendors will be considered.

What Makes a Good Cloud Forum Proposal?

The Cloud Forum attracts a range of cloud experiences, perspectives and priorities. From developers to directors of infrastructure and from researchers to CIOs, all who attend are looking to share their experiences, and learn from their peers. They hunger for answers, for validation of their own choices, and for the creative ideas of the community.

We encourage you to think expansively about topics worthy of sharing. Each year presenters share their challenges and frustrations, their successes and lessons, their ideas and inspirations. The work you are doing is not only relatable to your peers, but validating and impactful.

The proposal submission form has some current topics of interest, but by no means should you limit yourself to those.

Presentation Formats

The program consists of 30-minute presentations on topics of broad interest, 5-minute lightning talks on the activities and ideas of the attending institutions, and multi-institutional 30- or 45-minute panels for deep exploration of a single topic. In addition, the Forum includes an unconference where attendees will have the opportunity to bring their own topic, brainstorm with others, and report out to the group in short “Cloudburst” presentations. This year’s Cloud Forum will also feature a workshop furthering the work of the 2026 Cloud Forum to develop a higher ed cloud maturity model.

Logistics

All presentations must be delivered in person at the Cloud Forum in Charlottesville. The Cloud Forum has no registration fee and most meals are provided. There are no stipends or travel funds to support speaker attendance. It is each presenter’s responsibility to fund their own travel and hotel.

If you have questions before or after you submit your proposal, please reach out to Cloud Forum chair Bob Flynn (bflynn@internet2.edu).