NeoNephos at the OSSummit EU!
After a long stretch of event after event, things are finally settling down a bit which gives us a good moment to look back at the Open Source Summit Europe in Prague. It was a wonderful event. Connecting with our peers always gets our spirits up and this time was no different! The enthusiasm was especially apparent at our NeoNephos booth, where we met many new and old familiar faces, and curious and like-minded people, that gave us the chance to explain in more detail what we’re doing and where we’re heading. The booth was staffed by a strong cross-company team from a range of different NeoNephos members.
Sovereignty Requires Real Choice The highlight for NeoNephos was Tarek Becker’s keynote. As CTO of SAP’s Business AI Platform Fabric, Tarek opened with a data point: 94% of respondents to the most recent World of Open Source survey state digital sovereignty is at least somewhat important to their organization. And yet sovereignty, as he put it, must be operational – not theoretical. It requires choice. SAP runs some of the world’s most critical business processes. And the challenge they face is one many enterprises share: customers want the managed cloud experience, but they also need to keep control. Just telling someone their workload runs in the cloud doesn’t meet compliance. Sovereignty has to be real and exercisable.
Tarek walked through three NeoNephos projects that show what this looks like in practice: Gardener – a Kubernetes-native control plane that lets SAP operate thousands of clusters consistently across all major hyperscalers and their own infrastructure. One consistent interface, regardless of what’s running underneath. OVH, STACKIT, T-Systems and others already rely on it. OCM (Open Component Model) – a standardized model for packaging, describing and transporting software across environments, including air-gapped systems. It provides a Software Bill of Delivery that is signed and verifiable, which is becoming increasingly important in regulated industries. Platform Mesh – a common, declarative service management layer built on the Kubernetes resource model. It standardizes how applications consume platform services like databases across different providers, so the choice of provider stays with the customer.
These are just three of the many projects that together make sovereignty a practical reality.
Why an independent foundation matters Tarek made the case clear: single-vendor open source is not enough. Open code gives you the ability to inspect, operate and fork. Open interfaces give you the ability to build alternative implementations. But independent governance is what gives those alternatives the space to develop without requiring permission from a strategic supplier. That is why SAP donated these projects to NeoNephos under the Linux Foundation Europe – because sovereignty cannot depend on one company. SAP’s commercial interest aligns with what customers need: the best business software in the world, running on infrastructure they actually control. As Tarek closed: “Sovereignty is not the promise that you have a choice. It’s the ability to exercise it.”
Get involved If you share that goal we very much welcome you bring your projects, contribute to existing ones, or simply follow along. NeoNephos is open to everyone who wants to make choice a reality with open source.
Obligatory group photo and event shots: