“Cloud computing is the new operating system.”
That’s what one venture capitalist said on stage at the inaugural GeekWire Cloud Tech Summit, and it’s a reminder of why it was so exciting to welcome more than 600 folks to our first technical event ever on Wednesday in Bellevue, Wash.
It was an action-packed day that showcased the cutting-edge cloud-related trends and ideas that are transforming the technology world. You can see a recap video of the action here:
Speakers represented some of the biggest companies in cloud computing today, from Amazon to Google to Microsoft to Docker.
We had a great lineup of speakers and presenters — folks like Microsoft Azure chief Scott Guthrie; Docker CEO Steve Singh; Cloud Foundry Foundation Executive Director Abby Kearns; and others — who shared insight about the world of cloud computing and addressed pressing technical questions to our attendees about everything from DevOps to serverless computing.
“It is no understatement to say that public cloud computing is revolutionizing how technology is used,” wrote Fortune reporter Barb Darrow, who attended the event.
We loved hosting a world-class conference of this kind in the Seattle area, which many consider the epicenter of the cloud industry with companies like Amazon and Microsoft, in addition to countless startups that are all building cloud-related technologies.
“This is an incredible community with incredible technology talent,” said Singh, who announced that Docker is opening an office in the area, yet another Bay Area company planting its flag up north. “Obviously, it’s cloud city as well.”
Excited that the @geekwire cloudtech summit is getting started. Seattle is ground zero for cloud. #GWCloudTech pic.twitter.com/cKKWXt3cuO
— Joe Beda (@jbeda) June 7, 2017
"It's cool to see #Seattle becoming the cloud capitol of the world," @scottgu says about cross-pollination among area tech co. #GWCloudTech
— GeekWire (@geekwire) June 7, 2017
Thanks @geekwire for a great #gwcloudtech summit! Discovered new tools, met new people, & have some ideas on to empower my team & clients!
— Sean Patterson (@DillieO) June 7, 2017
Having a fun afternoon at #gwcloudtech, meeting the Seattle tech community, and talking about @intentionet.
— Ratul Mahajan (@ratulm) June 7, 2017
The day kicked off with a fireside chat featuring Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group.
Microsoft Azure chief Scott Guthrie on competing with Amazon, and standing out in the cloud
“Microsoft is learning from Amazon.com, borrowing some of the company’s guiding principles in a competition to provide web-based technology services,” Seattle Times tech journalist Matt Day reported from the event.
The morning continued with “Power Talks” featuring Kearns, the executive director of Cloud Foundry; Joe Beda, Heptio co-founder and co-creator of Kubernetes; Sunny Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Apptio; and Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Amazon AI.
Apptio, which helps CIOs monitor IT spend, reveals which cloud platforms customers are adopting
Before lunch, Fortune’s Darrow interviewed Greg DeMichillie, Google’s director of product management, office of the CTO, Google Cloud.
Google exec: New Seattle building ‘is going to be basically Google Cloud’
Model of the new Google Seattle office now under construction. Slightly bothered by lack of “not to scale” warning. pic.twitter.com/ayq3rMeSDg
— Greg DeMichillie (@gregde) June 8, 2017
Google continues to emphasize its cloud tech chops as it scrambles to catch AWS and Azure
Google finds hiring easier for Seattle because Bay Area housing costs are so high (via Silicon Beat)
A break for lunch allowed attendees to network with each other and check out sponsor booths with cool giveaways like free airline tickets and e-readers; VIP attendees and speakers were able to connect at a special VIP meal.
Attendees spent the afternoon soaking up knowledge at three separate technical tracks — DevOps, Microservices/Serverless and Artificial Intelligence — as well as a business track that featured a venture capital panel, a media panel and a startup showcase.
Here’s how venture capitalists are thinking about cloud computing companies and technologies
Cloudy with a chance of profit: Cloud drives value for tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft
Our last on-stage discussion featured Singh and his Docker colleague Scott Johnston.
Docker set to open Seattle-area engineering center, latest Bay Area tech company to land in Northwest
We ended the day with a fun party at Salesforce’s new Bellevue office, which won the “Geekiest Office Space” award at our GeekWire Awards event in May.
Thanks for hosting the #GWCloudTech after-party, @salesforce! #geekiestofficespace pic.twitter.com/S79KDRgLHX
— GeekWire (@geekwire) June 8, 2017
It was also fun welcoming back Guillaume Wiatr, who sketched drawings inspired by on-stage interviews and presentations.
Check out photos from the photo booth here:
You can read all our coverage from the Cloud Tech Summit here. We’ll be posting videos from the on-stage discussions soon, so stay tuned for that.
Thanks to Kevin Lisota for snapping photos of the event, and to all of our attendees for being apart of it all. And of course, a big thanks to title sponsor, Salesforce, and all our other GeekWire Cloud Tech Summit sponsors for helping to make this event happen:
Gold sponsors: Smartsheet, Northeastern University-Seattle, City of Bellevue, F5 Networks, Salesforce, Axon, Owen Media, CenturyLink and Capital One.
Silver Sponsors: Acumatica, Moz, Expedia, OfferUp and Chef.
Supporting Sponsors: Avalara, Foster School of Business Technology Management MBA, Madrona Venture Group, First Tech Federal Credit Union, Lighter Capital, EY,Knoll and Architecht.
Exhibitors: ALLtech, Nintex, ATI, Sysgain, DB Best Technologies, Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, StrataCore, WeWork and ExtraSlice.
We’ll see you at our next event — the second annual GeekWire Sports Tech Summit later this month on June 21-22 in Seattle.
