heise offer: S2N, the conference for Storage, Server, Network: Program for Berlin is ready

The annual S2N conference, focusing on storage, servers, and networking, will take place this year in Berlin starting on November 3 at the Estrel Congress Center. The two-day event's presentation program has now been published online. Attendees who book tickets by June 29 can benefit from a Very Early Bird discount, saving 200 euros per ticket. S2N provides an opportunity for professionals to engage with topics such as modern storage solutions, network architecture and management, current trends, and practical experiences shared by colleagues. It has established itself as an annual meeting point for individuals responsible for designing, shaping, and maintaining IT systems within companies or public institutions. This includes administrators and system architects, data center and IT managers, CTOs, and CIOs. The conference will address four tracks over its two days, each tackling challenges faced by those managing IT infrastructure. Several presentations will focus on the operation of local generative AI and trustworthy AI systems. For example, David Menzel will discuss what is truly required to operate powerful large language models within one’s own data center, and what is not. Benjamin Merkel and Fabian Roll from TNG will demonstrate how to utilize Trusted Execution Environments such as Intel TDX and Nvidia Confidential Compute for confidential AI workloads. Lukas Grunwald will show how to build AgenticAI using vLLM and self-hosted language models, including practical applications for IT infrastructure such as forensics and spam analysis. Beyond AI, the conference offers sessions on networking and storage topics ranging from EVPN to gRPC. Robin Christ will tackle the challenge of explaining EVPN-VXLAN practically and in a hands-on manner. Mathis Bramkamp from Nokia will introduce modern network management using gRPC, while Martin Fleischer from Menzel IT will cover tools and methods for observability in distributed SDN systems such as Open Virtual Network. Storage experts will find several sessions dedicated to Ceph, including an introduction to often overlooked CephFS by Martin Loschwitz, Ceph in high-performance computing environments, or Ceph RBD Mirroring. Karl Lengsfeld will present a case study on the benefits of highly available ZFS storage and how to implement it. Lutz Labs from c’t will look into the future of long-term archiving beyond tape. Two legal and compliance topics relevant to nearly all attendees will be addressed precisely and concisely by Joerg Heidrich, legal counsel at Heise. These include the conflict between deletion periods versus retention periods and the obligations for IT operators arising from the AI Act. In addition to these sessions, visitors can expect many more presentations, such as those on Proxmox and OpenStack for replacing expensive virtual environments, pragmatic site reliability engineering, or troubleshooting in complex networks. On the day before the main conference, November 2, three workshops will be held: practical use of Wireshark, Proxmox backup solutions, and open-source identity and access management with Keycloak. The organizers of S2N are iX, the magazine for professional IT, and dpunkt.verlag. Those interested in receiving updates about the conference can sign up for the newsletter on the conference website. S2N, the heise conference for servers, storage, and networking, will be held on November 3 and 4 at the Estrel Congress Center in Berlin. A preliminary conference program is available for review.