About the Event

The Cloud X Summit is the annual flagship customer and partner event produced by STACKIT, the European hyperscaler and cloud platform from Schwarz Digits - the digital arm of the Schwarz Group, parent company of Lidl and Kaufland. The 2026 edition is the fourth instalment and takes place September 16-17 at the RheinMain CongressCenter (RMCC) in Wiesbaden, Germany - a significant scale-up from previous editions held in Heilbronn. The event is structured across two days: September 16 is an exclusive Schwarz Digits Partner Summit for STACKIT's technology and consulting partners, preceded by the "X Connect: The Meet-Up" evening networking event from 5pm; September 17 is the main Cloud X Summit open to all attendees, running 9am to 5:50pm and concluding with the "Sunset Social" networking event. The 2025 edition in Heilbronn drew 580+ participants, 59 speakers, 32 breakout sessions, and 7 exhibitors. The 2026 edition targets significantly larger scale. The event's overarching theme is "The Backbone for Digital Independence: Enablement of a Sovereign European Ecosystem," with the programme motto "Xperience. Xchange. Xplore."

Audience & Attendees

The Cloud X Summit is designed for IT decision-makers, CIOs, CTOs, cloud architects, digital transformation leaders, and public sector technology leaders across German-speaking Europe and beyond. The event draws practitioners and executives from enterprise, mid-market, and public sector organisations - particularly those in regulated industries such as retail, healthcare, financial services, public administration, and manufacturing - who are actively evaluating or deploying sovereign cloud infrastructure. Attendance requires pre-registration and an internal qualification process; a confirmed registration letter is issued before final sign-up. Partners, customers, and prospects of STACKIT and the broader Schwarz Digits ecosystem are the primary audience. The partner exhibition in the South Hall features 30+ exhibitors from the STACKIT partner network.

Programme Structure

The main conference day runs September 17 from 9am to 5:50pm. The programme combines keynote addresses, panel discussions, and pre-bookable breakout sessions across industry focus areas. Breakout sessions are bookable in advance from July 2026 through the event app or attendee profile. A partner exhibition area with 30+ exhibitors runs throughout the day, and Q&A rounds with speakers follow panel discussions and breakout sessions. Networking is woven throughout - including dedicated breaks - with the Sunset Social from approximately 5:50pm serving as the formal close. The September 16 Partner Summit is exclusive to confirmed technology and consulting partners of STACKIT and Schwarz Digits, with its own programme and evening networking.

Main Topics

The 2026 programme centres on digital sovereignty as a strategic and commercial imperative for European businesses and the public sector. Content is organised around industry-specific use cases showing how organisations across focus sectors - retail, healthcare, financial services, public administration, and manufacturing - are deploying sovereign cloud in practice. Cross-cutting themes include STACKIT's sovereign cloud platform capabilities including confidential computing, data sovereignty, compliance-as-enabler, and AI infrastructure; practical AI deployment on sovereign European infrastructure; Kubernetes and cloud-native operations; data management and the data lakehouse approach; cloud migration strategy; and the role of open standards in European technological independence. Customer and partner case studies from organisations including the Federal Employment Agency and Baden-Württemberg police feature as reference examples.

Closing Session

The main conference concludes at approximately 5:50pm on September 17, followed by the Sunset Social networking event.

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