CeBit opens with strong focus on the cloud

Posted on 3/6/2013 by Sean McGrath

One of the world's top technology fairs - CeBit - has entered its second day with a focus on 'sharing cyberspace'.

The fair was officially opened by German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, on Monday night.

According to citywire.com, Poland is getting a decent portion of the limelight as one of the quickest up and comers in the tech market. However, the main theme is 'shareconomy', which aims to look beyond standard features such as cloud email, to explore where the cloud is taking society.

The German chief of Microsoft, Christian Illek explained: "Cloud computing is changing business models, company cost structures as well as user habits."

The fair will play host to over 4,100 exhibitors from 70 nations and expects in the region of 350,000 visitors. The other big event, the Mobile World Congress has just wound down in Barcelona and the organisers of CeBit and pulling out all the stops to ensure they are not outdone.

Frank Porschmann, the head of CeBit explained to dw.de that rather than focusing one bit of the technology sector like MWC or CES, the fair looked at the entire model - 'IT, telecommunications, electronics and content'. This put CeBit, he said, in unique position to look at the cloud and how it will drive innovation and business in the future.