COMMON EUROPE CONGRESS 2025: Full Schedule

WELCOME TO COMMON EUROPE CONGRESS 2025

Don’t forget to reach out to your local country user group to get the discount code for the congress!

Common Europe, in collaboration with Common Sweden, is delighted to be holding its annual flagship event, Common Europe Congress, in the friendly city of Gothenburg offering extensive education, networking and relaxation opportunities. It’s also a great opportunity for exploring the city… so why not take a family mini-break as well.
Congress education areas targeted are IBM Power hardware, Application Development, Advanced RPG, Open Source tools and Languages, System Management, Db2 and SQL, IBM Storage, IBM i services and microservices, Security and Compliance and much more.
There will be two AIX / Linux tracks, to emphasize the Power Systems character of Common Europe.
Top IBM Business Architects and industry experts have already agreed to share their knowledge on the latest announcements, customer cases as well as practical subjects.
The congress content includes:

3 ½ days of latest education delivered by top IBM and industry leading speakers punctuated by large breaks offering maximum networking,
Three-hour in-depth workshops, 60 minutes’ education sessions and solution provider’s special slots,
A Solution Providers’ Centre open for 2 ½ days with top European and worldwide technology companies at their booths presenting innovative practical solutions that will enhance our solutions,
A Congress Dinner in the hotel with live entertainment.

We have negotiated special room rates in the Congress hotel itself,
The Common Europe Organization Team looks forward to seeing you in picturesque Gothenburg.

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

10:40 CEST

A gentle introduction to containerization and OpenShift on IBM Power

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST

11 - R9

The world of application containerization can be intimidating at first.
Fear not ! In this session, we’ll take things step by step, breaking down the complexities into manageable, easy-to-understand pieces.
With simple explanations and concrete examples we’ll explore the containerization fundamentals, its advantages in modern software development, and how OpenShift enhances the management, scaling, and deployment of containers.
And of course, everything we demonstrate will be running on IBM Power, so we’ll also see how this powerful platform supports modernization projects and cloud-native applications.

Speakers

Alfonso Cancellara

Technical Account Manager, OpenShift, Red Hat

Alfonso Cancellara is a Technical Account Manager at Red Hat, specializing in OpenShift.Before taking on this role, he worked at Red Hat as a Senior Technical Support Engineer, where he developed a deep understanding of client pain points, building a strong foundation in empathy and... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

10:40 CEST

Using your existing Power investment for AI loads LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST

10 - R15

Problem: We had an ever-increasing need for processing power running advanced analytics and AI workloads. Initially everything ran in a WMware/Intel environment which demanded more and more virtual hosts.

At the same time, we had a set-up where the ERP system ran on one master Power server and another hot stand-by Power server. The hot stand-by host was in principle never used other than when failover tests were performed.

Solution: We slightly redesigned the existing analytics platform and ported it to Linux on Power utilizing the hot standby server. The solution was from the beginning designed so that in case the hot stand-by was ever needed the workload could be dynamically distributed to other computing environments on-prem or in the cloud.

Configuration: The solution is based on open technologies to allow for flexible deployments on-prem or in any cloud. The primary building blocks are Apache Spark, Kubernetes, MongoDB and Elasticsearch. In addition to that other technologies are used to solve particular analytics or AI problems. The system is governed by a redundant master controller where the deployment of compute nodes is managed. The actual workloads and data pipelines are handled by a redundant job controller. Compute jobs are mainly run in Spark using SQL, R and Python and all data is stored in MongoDB or in Parquet or Delta table formats.

Conclusion: Utilizing spare capacity is extremely cost effective and performing heavy data processing on-prem can save a considerable amount of money.

by Peter Haneklou

Speakers

Peter Haneklou

CTO, Pacing Sweden AB

I am dedicated to driving innovation at the intersection of AI, Data science, and business strategy. I believe the true potential lies not just in algorithms, but in their thoughtful and practical application to create competitive advantages and new opportunities. My experience involves... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

11:50 CEST

Introduction to AIX RBAC and Implementation Best Practices LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST

10 - R15

Join this session to not only know the theory about AIX Role-Based Access Control but getting to know the Dos and Don'ts when implementing RBAC. This presentation is based on real customer projects and show you the best practices when using RBAC to reduce the need for root access.

Speakers

Thomas Barlen

Senior Managing Consultant, IBM

IT consultant architecting and implementing security solutions mainly in the IBM i and AIX area. I am also a frequent speaker at technical conferences. Specialties: Cryptography, Single Signon, Security assessments, Access Control concepts and implementation, IBM i networking, IBM... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

11:50 CEST

Opensource Lifecycle Management on AIX LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST

11 - R9

BFF, RPM, DNF, Toolbox... Everything you should know about opensource packages on AIX, how to install and manage them.

By Andrey Klyachkin

Speakers

Andrey Klyachkin

Managing Director, eNFence

I help companies build standardized, completely automated and agile IBM Power infrastructure.➤ It minimizes your time to market for new apps and features.➤ It optimizes your IT operational costs.➤ It enhances your security.WHAT HAVE I ACHIEVED?➤ POWER DevOps (https://www.power-devops.com... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

14:00 CEST

Building IBM Power as a Service Platform from Scratch: A Deep Dive into Integration with Hybrid Multi-Cloud Environments LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 14:00 - 15:00 CEST

10 - R15

Learn about the top use cases for AI on Power 10. In this session, learn about design decisions, deployment, and challenges of AI on IBM Power, including taking advantage of MMA on Power10

Speakers

Youssef Largou

CEO, Power Maroc

As executive associate director, my focus is on delivering essential technology stack and frameworks to help organizations reinvent themselves and realize their digital transformation, modernize their infrastructure and move mission critical workloads across clouds. I focus my time... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

14:00 CEST

Leverage Event-Driven Ansible to reduce your automation reaction time LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 14:00 - 15:00 CEST

11 - R9

In today's complex IT environments, it is more important than ever to automate tasks and processes. Event-Driven Ansible is a new feature of Ansible that allows you to automate IT tasks based on events that occur in your IT environment. This session will provide an introduction to Event-Driven Ansible, including what it is, how it works, and the benefits of using it. We will also discuss some examples of how Event-Driven Ansible can be used in real-world scenarios.

Speakers

Fabio Alessandro Locati

Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Red Hat

Fabio Alessandro Locati - commonly known as Fale - is an EMEA Principal Solutions Architect at Red Hat, public speaker, published author, and Open Source contributor. His main areas of expertise are Linux, containers (ie: Kubernetes), automation (ie: Ansible), security, cloud (mainly... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

15:50 CEST

Event Driven Power Infrastructure LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:50 - 16:50 CEST

11 - R9

This presentation is about event driven infrastructure and how you can facilitate autoremediation in case of problems, using Ansible, Icinga2, Request Tracker and webhooks, you can create an elastic auto-scaling infrastructure to optimize the capacity for your workload and dynamically scale your batches, and capcity usage.

Speakers

Toshaan Bharvani

CTO, VanTosh

Toshaan Bharvani is a IT consultant, currently self-employed at VanTosh, with a interest in Open Source Software and Open Source Hardware. He started his IT interest at a very early age, when his father gave him his first own PC components. Ever since he has been interested in IT... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:50 - 16:50 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

15:50 CEST

Introduction to AI LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:50 - 16:50 CEST

10 - R15

AI is transforming industries, redefining business processes, and unlocking new possibilities across IT landscapes. In this session, we will explore the fundamentals of AI, its key concepts, and its impact on enterprise computing. We will discuss how AI technologies—such as machine learning, natural language processing, and automation—are shaping modern IT strategies, particularly in environments leveraging IBM Power Systems and Linux.

Join us for this insightful introduction to AI, designed for IT professionals looking to understand AI’s potential and how it aligns with IBM-based solutions. Whether you're new to AI or seeking ways to leverage it in your organization, this session will provide a clear roadmap for getting started.

Speakers

Mirza Ćutuk

Solutions Architect, InnoBoost SA

I am a Junior Solutions Architect with a passion for designing, building and implementing creative digital solutions. I enjoy solving complex problems, finding interesting use-cases for technologies and products that already exist, as well as making things from scratch. I am currently... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:50 - 16:50 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux, AI

17:00 CEST

Accelerating Enterprise AI with IBM Power10: From LLMs to Real-World Applications LIMITED

Tuesday June 3, 2025 17:00 - 18:00 CEST

10 - R15

Join Paul Chapman, for an in-depth exploration of how IBM Power10 is transforming enterprise AI deployment. Paul will demonstrate live how to deploy LLM & RAG, showcasing how Power10's built-in Matrix Math Accelerator (MMA), large memory capacity, and advanced threading capabilities enable organizations to efficiently run AI workloads including Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications. Through real customer examples spanning healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, learn how organizations are achieving up to 60% better performance and 48% lower energy consumption compared to x86 alternatives. The session will cover both enterprise solutions like IBM Cloud Pak for Data and open-source options including RocketCE, demonstrating practical paths to AI adoption regardless of your starting point. Get hands-on insights into deploying and optimizing AI workloads on Power10, and discover how to begin your organization's AI journey through IBM's use case alignment workshops.

Speakers

Paul Chapman

Global Power Modernisation Technical Lead, IBM UK

Firstly, I love creating memories with my family and dog, Buddy. Previously I enjoyed European motorcycle tours and track days and still own an Aprilia RSV1000. I spend my recreation time SCUBA diving or anything else adventurous. I have participated in Project Shark in the Red Sea... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 17:00 - 18:00 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

17:00 CEST

MariaDB Server and MariaDB MaxScale - Enterprise class database technology for IBM Power

Tuesday June 3, 2025 17:00 - 18:00 CEST

11 - R9

MariaDB Server is very popular database for any type of workload, and MariaDB Enterprise Server is the Enterprise database system that builds on this to deliver an Enterprise class database system which together with MariaDB MaxScale provides High Availability, Scalability and world class support and services, all available on the IBM Power platform. In this talk I will cover some of the foundations of MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB MaxScale and what features are provided. There are also many new features in MariaDB Enterprise Server, such as Vector search for AI applications, enhanced JSON support and more, which will be covered.
One particular feature of MariaDB will be coverered in more detail, the ease of migrating from other database systems to MariaDB, in particular Oracle.

Speakers

Anders Karlsson

Principal Sales Engineer, MariaDB

Database Sales Engineer with more than 40 years experience from relational databases. Develops tools and utilities and official MariaDB contributor, assistst in MariaDB implementations, specialized in database migrations. Has worked with many different relational database systems... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 17:00 - 18:00 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

08:00 CEST

AI Use Cases on IBM Power10 LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 08:00 - 09:00 CEST

10 - R15

Learn about the top use cases for AI on Power 10. In this session, learn about design decisions, deployment, and challenges of AI on IBM Power, including taking advantage of MMA on Power10.

Speakers

Youssef Largou

CEO, Power Maroc

Wednesday June 4, 2025 08:00 - 09:00 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

08:00 CEST

Upgrade VIOS to 4.1. Fully automated!

Wednesday June 4, 2025 08:00 - 09:00 CEST

11 - R9

I had two weeks between the years and ca. 160 Virtual I/O Servers to upgrade. It means I had ca. 30 minutes (or less) per upgrade. It is more than enough time if you use automation like Ansible. I describe how I automated my VIOS upgrades and what problems I've got on the way.

By Andrey Klyachkin

Speakers

Andrey Klyachkin

Managing Director, eNFence

Wednesday June 4, 2025 08:00 - 09:00 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux, IBM Power

09:10 CEST

Keynote - How we have made AI simple & fast for IBM Power LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST

04 - F2

The top priorities of IBM Power clients when integrating AI capabilities into their solutions are simplicity and performance. Both properties have driven the AI with IBM Power strategy since the past two years and have now led to significant innovation with products such as IBM Spyre Accelerator for Power, Code Assistant for IBM i, and more.

This session gives an overview of these innovations in light of the overall strategy and outlines the roadmap for what's next. The session covers concrete customer examples and live demonstrations of typical fit-for-purpose AI use cases on IBM Power, for example, in the generative AI space with large language models such as IBM/Granite & Meta/Llama and RAG architectures for digital assistants.

Speakers

Sebastian Lehrig

WW AI on IBM Power Leader, IBM

As world-wide leader for AI on IBM Power, Sebastian is the main product manager to drive design, development, and market success of AI offerings & capabilities on the IBM Power platform. Previously, he has brought the open-source AI portfolio (including technology such as Kubeflow... Read More →

Wednesday June 4, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST
04 - F2

AIX/Linux

10:20 CEST

A story of real Multi- Hybrid Cloud, or reality?

Wednesday June 4, 2025 10:20 - 11:20 CEST

11 - R9

This presentation show how you can run multi-cloud and hybrid cloud systems using IBM Power. The most important question is, can you really run your application in a cloud native way, or are you just being cloud naive?
If your workload does support running in a cloud native way, can you run on multiple clouds?
Now that you can run on multiple clouds, can you run in a hybrid cloud setup.
This presentation debuncts the myths around multi-cloud, hybrid-cloud and other cloud solutions, with a small demonstration of what multi- hybrid- cloud could really do if implementent correctly.

Speakers

Toshaan Bharvani

CTO, VanTosh

Wednesday June 4, 2025 10:20 - 11:20 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

10:20 CEST

Single Node OpenShift on Power – A game changer! LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 10:20 - 11:20 CEST

10 - R15

What if you could dive into the world of containers with minimal resources? With OpenShift running on a single IBM LPAR, traditional IBM i and AIX customers can take their first steps into containerization with a tiny footprint. Join me to see just how easy it is to deploy OpenShift on Power and what it takes to build a fully functional container management platform!

by Nicolae Chirea

Speakers

Nicolae Chirea

System Architect, Seidor Iberia

Wednesday June 4, 2025 10:20 - 11:20 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

11:30 CEST

Leverage Red Hat Ansible to automate your IBM Power Systems LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 CEST

11 - R9

Red Hat Ansible is a mighty Configuration Management System that can help you to automate all IT processes.
This capability is foundational for the success of Ansible, since automating all processes, end-to-end, with the same tools is the key to highly efficient and effective automation.
One of the less-known capabilities of Ansible is its ability to manage Power systems.
Now Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform can run on your IBM Power systems, so you can use it to automate without compromises!

By Fabio Alessandro Locati

Wednesday June 4, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

11:30 CEST

Securing AI – Challenges and Best Practices LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 CEST

10 - R15

AI becomes a critical component of enterprise IT, ensuring its security is paramount. AI systems introduce new risks, from data privacy concerns to adversarial attacks and model integrity threats. This session will explore the key security challenges associated with AI, particularly in environments running on IBM Power Systems and Linux.

We will discuss best practices for securing AI applications, including data protection strategies, governance frameworks, and risk mitigation techniques. Attendees will gain insights into how AI-driven security solutions can enhance threat detection and response while ensuring compliance with industry regulations.

Speakers

Mirza Ćutuk

Solutions Architect, InnoBoost SA

Wednesday June 4, 2025 11:30 - 12:30 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux, AI

14:05 CEST

GenAI on IBM Power can answer your questions about Harry Potter, and much more! LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 14:05 - 15:05 CEST

10 - R15

Everyone is talking about GenAI, and in this session we will show GenAI running on IBM Power. You may also be aware that GenAI models don't know everything, and can make up answers. Join us to see how we can improve the answers GenAI creates, from data you can control, without retraining the model.

Speakers

David Spurway

IBM Power AI and Security Principal, EMEA, IBM Technology Sales, IBM

As the Global Principal IBM Power, David is the primary evangelist for IBM Power in IBM Technology Sales. He regularly meets and presents to a range of audiences, from CxO to new graduates, articulating the value of our solutions. Whether the topic is the existing IBM Power offerings... Read More →

Wednesday June 4, 2025 14:05 - 15:05 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

14:05 CEST

KVM in PowerVM LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 14:05 - 15:05 CEST

11 - R9

Exploring KVM in PowerVM. New use cases and reference architectures.

By Hugo Blanco

Wednesday June 4, 2025 14:05 - 15:05 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

15:20 CEST

Kubernetes on Power: hard, not so hard and easy way

Wednesday June 4, 2025 15:20 - 16:20 CEST

10 - R15

Everyone talks about OpenShift. Why do we need it? What's the difference between Kubernetes and OpenShift? What can happen if you decide to run pure Kubernetes on IBM Power?

By Andrey Klyachkin

Speakers

Andrey Klyachkin

Managing Director, eNFence

Wednesday June 4, 2025 15:20 - 16:20 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

15:20 CEST

Open Source on IBM Power LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 15:20 - 16:20 CEST

11 - R9

This presentation talks about Open Source on IBM Power, the initiatives ongoing within the OpenPOWER foundation, the open source community and the state of open source on IBM AIX, IBM i and Linux on Power

Speakers

Toshaan Bharvani

CTO, VanTosh

Wednesday June 4, 2025 15:20 - 16:20 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

16:30 CEST

Deploy Modern Enterprise Applications on IBM Power with OpenShift & Multi-Architecture Compute: Seamlessly Running x86 and Power Workloads Together LIMITED

Wednesday June 4, 2025 16:30 - 17:30 CEST

10 - R15

Join Paul Chapman to explore OpenShift & Multi-Architecture Compute capabilities. This session demonstrates how organizations can leverage both x86 and IBM Power architectures within a single OpenShift cluster, enabling more flexible and efficient containerized workload deployment. Through practical demonstrations including installation of Single Node OpenShift and deployment of an x86 microservices-based application on IBM Power, attendees will learn how to:

- Install Single Node OpenShift on Power systems
- Deploy x86 microservice solution on IBM Power with OpenShift Container Platform
- Migrate .NET 7.0 microservice to .NET 9.0
- Migrate microservice workloads between x86 and Power architectures

Drawing from actual customer implementations, including a major healthcare provider's success story, this session provides valuable insights for organizations looking to optimize their infrastructure while maintaining operational simplicity. Whether you're considering modernization strategies or already running mixed architecture environments, you'll gain practical knowledge about deploying and managing multi-architecture compute solutions in production.

Speakers

Paul Chapman

Global Power Modernisation Technical Lead, IBM UK

Wednesday June 4, 2025 16:30 - 17:30 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

09:10 CEST

Automation with Ansible (AAP) and Power Systems - PowerVC, HMC, AIX & Linux

Thursday June 5, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST

10 - R15

• Session is all about how we went from semi manual workflow to deployment of an IKEA AIX Technical Standard via Ansible and PowerVC. The sessions shows our workflow for deployment and delete plus D2D tasks including
zoning, storage, power systems, dual vios and AIX configuration. To support this automation even more we use EP20.

By Stephan Åkeborg

Speakers

Stephan Åkeborg

Systems Engineer Digital Compute Platforms, IKEA

Keep an expert competence within Power Systems, PowerVM, AIX and PowerHA, Linux, Storage Protect and Storage Systems. Cloud implementations based on PowerVC in complex environments, including automation through Ansible.Maintain IBM certifications.Other specialties: Customer suited... Read More →

Thursday June 5, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST
10 - R15

AIX/Linux

09:10 CEST

BSD on IBM Power, the forgotten Open Source Operating System LIMITED

Thursday June 5, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST

11 - R9

This presentation talks about BSD on IBM Power, while it is well known that IBM Power supports, IBM AIX, IBM i and Linux on Power, there is also support for BSD on IBM Power.
The currently supported BSD variants are FreeBSD and OpenBSD, these operating systems provide a UNIX setup that provides open source software native to IBM Power.

Thursday June 5, 2025 09:10 - 10:10 CEST
11 - R9

AIX/Linux

10:20 CEST

AIX Trends and Directions LIMITED

Thursday June 5, 2025 10:20 - 11:20 CEST

10 - R15

In this session, I shall discuss how IBM AIX has grown and has new skills! IBM AIX has a strong, published roadmap out beyond 2038 and aligns to the IBM Technology Atlas that shows IBM’s technical direction. In this session, I shall focus on how AIX particularly delivers for Security, Hybrid Cloud and AI. Join us to learn more!

Speakers