A Look Back at CloudFest 2022: New Cloud-focused Opportunities and Trends on the Horizon

CloudFest has always been the event that shapes cloud discussions for the following months. This year’s event was no different. A stellar lineup of speakers from diverse industries led talks on the driving themes of the intelligent edge, sustainability in the cloud and our evolving digital world. Carlos Rego, Vice President, Strategic Development, Virtuozzo, walks us through the event and the dialogues it hosted.

Walking through the doors of Europa-Park, you could feel it. The energy buzzed across the floor. Conversations crowded the air as more than 130 speakers, and 150 exhibitors filled the halls. According to organizers, the show hosted the largest number of opening day attendees in its history. After a two-year pandemic-driven hiatus, it was clear: CloudFest was back! 

CloudFest has always been the premier event for the hosting industry. It draws strategists, service providers, software experts, hardware specialists and others from more than 70 countries. Over the years, it has shifted to embrace more cloud-focused technologies to support the hosting community’s continued evolution. 

As a company that delivers end-to-end cloud enablement solutions for the alternative cloud market, it is one we would never miss. The show is compelling in that while many vendors and attendees are competitors, they come together here to share experiences. To discuss their visions, collaboratively solve challenges, and define viable opportunities in an effort to help the industry as a whole move forward in meaningful ways. After all, healthy competition leads to a thriving marketplace for all. 

So, let’s review this year’s event, highlighting the topics that took center stage throughout the show. 

WordPress Is King 

The biggest theme emerging from CloudFest this year? WordPress is king. Today, 65 percent of all CMSs are WordPressOpens a new window , while more than 43 percent of websites run on it. WordPress usage is experiencing an approximate five percent year-over-year (YoY) increase. Interestingly, though, the economy around it is experiencing a more than six percent YoY growth, and the revenue generated by its use to date has reached 630 billion dollars worldwide. 

However, there was a common belief that WordPress hosting on traditional shared hosting is reaching its limits for opportunity and innovation. Simply hosting on a VPS is also a management nightmare. Hosters, along with their customers, seek true scalability, better security, easier management and more. Managing numerous virtual machines is no longer a solution to broad, diverse WordPress deployments. 

From where we sit, it is clear that the future for WordPress is Platform as a Service (PaaS). Numerous keynote presentations focused on identifying WordPress’ untapped potential for hosting providers. Sessions addressed how best to deploy it, advance its usability, leverage complementary solutions to maximize its performance, and more. 

The ecosystem around WordPress is also rapidly growing, evidenced by the large number of first-time exhibitors offering innovative WordPress solutions and add-ons. These companies understand the channel to the customer is through the service provider. And the service providers understand the new frontier of competitive solutions anchored on WordPress innovation. This symbiotic relationship is only beginning to understand and optimize its value proposition. 

Yet, even with all these advancements coming to market, hosters still need a way to capture and leverage that expanding ecosystem to benefit their business without draining their financial and human resources. This is where a holistic perspective can help. Sophisticated WordPress applications can be quickly deployed in individual containers and easily managed via an integrated environment using intelligent, automatic clusterization. These technological functions have existed in other software spaces, but it is now time to use them here. 

See More: Cloud Mirroring: Data Resilience In a Chaotic World

Cloud Security: The New Cyber Race 

The threat is real. A fireside chat early in the show outlined that cyberthreats are rapidly increasing. We are exposed to an alarming number of vulnerabilities driven by the rising volume of business conducted in the cloud. This trend was sent into hyperdrive when the pandemic hit. The hosting and cloud providers are racing to deploy comprehensive security solutions to deflect the threats. 

Companies need to know that their business assets are protected. Service providers are well aware and focused on answering that need. 

A masterclass was taught on how to identify cyber threats. A keynote introduced new risk management processes to meet evolving compliance requirements. Exhibitor tables showcased modernized applications designed to help manage security in today’s hosting and cloud landscapes and protect services well into the future. However, there is still a gap that our industry developers and providers are trying to close concerning security in the cloud swiftly. Their determination is fierce, and the response seems to be on track to success. Attention will continue to be paid to one of the largest Internet CMPs today. 

Momentum Through Modernization 

As with prior CloudFests, the overall sense is that hosting continues to move toward modern topologies that enable new services. Providers are focused on moving up the stack to deliver application-specific capabilities that advance consumption and deployment. It’s a trend that would be exciting to see it being adopted across the industry. 

Sustainability: Next Big Thing? 

While there’s always talk on how to grow provider businesses, this year’s event also captured a rising awareness around sustainability and environmentally responsible business practices. It became apparent throughout the show that many service providers are committed to reducing their environmental impact. This is due to their personal ethics and their customers’ rising interest in doing business with those who are more sustainable. 

There’s an opportunity here for cloud vendors to provide methods to help service providers achieve their goals. For example, one company showcased a solution that reuses heat generated by compute processing workloads to heat local commercial and residential units, thereby reducing fossil fuel dependencies at these locations. This  “edge heating”  brings the heat to where it is needed instead of losing it to the environment – an exciting concept. In short, with respect to sustainability, the discussion has begun. Now is the time to deliver solutions for greener footprints. 

See More: Three Reasons the Time Is Ripe for Cloud Transformation

A Hint at the Future

As noted above, WordPress was a big topic on everyone’s minds. The importance of advancing this technology was mirrored by the organizers’ shared comment that next year’s event will likely center on it. Again, expect to see more opportunities and innovation around WordPress site building blocks, improved database caching, tailored security and more through the coming years. 

What were your key takeaways from CloudFest2022? Share with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to know what you think!