When infrastructure meets infrastructure
By Cyso Cloud
onA thoroughly Dutch evening at Ten Westen
One might reasonably argue that cloud engineers spend entirely too much time staring at virtual infrastructure. So it was rather fitting that Cyso Cloud chose to host their summer drinks event at Ten Westen in Alkmaar—a venue that offers decidedly more tangible infrastructure in the form of a beautifully preserved gas factory building. Trading server racks for industrial heritage, the team ventured forth to what the locals enthusiastically call 'the greenest terrace in Alkmaar' (a claim we shall charitably accept without conducting a comprehensive chlorophyll audit).
The venue provided the perfect backdrop for what the Netherlands calls a 'Zomerborrel'. For the uninitiated, a borrel represents the Dutch solution to the eternal question of how to conduct business networking whilst simultaneously consuming bitterballen and maintaining a façade of casualness. The summer variant simply relocates this ritual outdoors, weather permitting (which, against all meteorological odds in the Netherlands, it did).
European ambitions and programmable accelerators
The evening commenced with a discussion of the CHORYS project, because naturally one cannot simply begin drinking without first establishing one's commitment to European digital sovereignty. As participants in this €4.3 million Horizon Europe initiative, Cyso Cloud finds itself at the rather exciting intersection of open-source accelerators and continental ambitions. The project, which aims to enhance Europe's position in RISC-V-based technologies whilst reducing dependence on non-European cloud infrastructure, represents precisely the sort of earnest technical endeavour that makes Brussels bureaucrats positively giddy.
For those keeping score at home, CHORYS involves developing ‘open and programmable accelerators for data-intensive applications’, a phrase that rolls off the tongue about as smoothly as one might expect. Cyso's role, providing cloud infrastructure and DevOps resources for testing these innovations, positions the company rather nicely within the broader European push for technological autonomy. One might even say they're accelerating the accelerators, though we shall resist such pedestrian wordplay.
The art of professional relaxation
Following the obligatory discussion of pan-European technological independence, the gathering shifted into its primary mode: the time-honoured Dutch tradition of pretending work relationships are purely social whilst simultaneously advancing one's professional network. The guest list, a carefully curated mixture of relations, cloud ambassadors, clients, and relatives, created precisely the sort of diverse gathering that management consultants dream about.
Sustenance and good cheer
The food service continued well into the evening, accompanied by an impressive selection of cocktails and craft beers that demonstrated considerably more sophistication than one typically expects from corporate functions. The venue's emphasis on sustainability aligned rather nicely with Cyso's own environmental commitments, creating a pleasing symmetry between physical and digital infrastructure efficiency.
Conclusion: Networking at ground level
As the evening progressed and the conversations evolved from structured discussions of European cloud sovereignty to the more fluid exchanges typical of several rounds of cocktails and craft beers, the event achieved its unstated but primary objective: reminding everyone involved that behind every API call and virtualisation layer, there exist actual human beings who occasionally benefit from stepping away from their keyboards.
The success of the Zomerborrel at Ten Westen demonstrates that even in our increasingly digitalised world, there remains value in the ancient art of standing about with a drink in hand, making pleasant conversation about matters both professional and personal. That this particular gathering occurred against the backdrop of a repurposed industrial site whilst discussing the future of European computational infrastructure adds a certain poetic irony that only the Dutch could orchestrate with such earnest enthusiasm.
In the final analysis, Cyso Cloud's summer gathering proved that whilst one can virtualise servers, storage, and entire data centres, the humble borrel remains stubbornly, delightfully analogue. And perhaps that's precisely the point.
