Advanced Technology Days '21

It was a lot about learning and insight this week, with a group of our software engineers traveling to Zagreb to participate in the Advanced Technology Days, a reputable tech conference with tradition and impact. Augmented reality and machine learning figured prominently on this year’s agenda. Sessions sought to show the benefits of migrating solutions to the cloud, while also explaining the possible downsides and risks.

-By all means, I think we heard in-depth accounts supporting the well-known benefits usually tied with the cloud. They range from the ease of use to the availability and cost-saving, while not compromising the security aspects. This will no doubt guide us, as our practices keep improving in terms of the quality of development, testing and delivery, explained Josip Dudas our software developer.

Among 56 lectures and demonstrations held by speakers from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and France, most participants didn’t want to miss the panel discussion on “How trend evolves into everyday life - from the cloud and AI to blockchain”. No doubt, the future of AI and cloud technology is already here.

-The adoption of cloud has accelerated greatly in the last year and a half, and the problem is not with security, but with trust, the panelists pointed out. We are adopting an approach called zero trust which represents a new way of thinking and changes the security paradigm, said Tomislav Tipuric, Chief Technology Officer at Nephos and one of the organizers.

The issue of trust is closely related to artificial intelligence, and the responsible use of AI. Moving forward, IT professionals will have more responsibility when communicating with governments about how data is collected, processed and what to do with it. AI technology should be deeply tied with ethical issues, panelists concluded.

From a small meetup for 70 insiders connected with Microsoft, when dial-up was still in wide use across rural Croatia, this conference grew to a large gathering of 300+ experts and professionals. We are thankful we could finally meet live and rejoin with the dev community.

Looking forward to seeing you all next year!