Feedback about DevOps Days Geneva in 2026: https://devopsdays.org/events/2026-geneva/program
Personal Thoughts
This was my first time attending DevOps Days. I spent half my time at the Camptocamp booth and the other half attending the talks.
Overall, I really enjoyed the event. There were a lot of attendees, including numerous students, who were very interested in talking with the companies at the booths.
The talk schedule, while heavily focused on AI, was actually quite varied. However, some talks lacked truly technical content and were at times too simplified. We were only given the final result, not the technical details that led to the conclusion of the topic presented. That’s a bit of a shame for a conference that’s supposed to be geared toward DevOps.
Talks
Here’s a list of the talks I enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the slides for the listed talks haven't been shared yet. If the presentation was recorded, it should be posted soon on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@devopsdaysgeneva/videos
In the meantime, here are some pictures of the slides from the various talks: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pZhcDtrbr3Si3iKQk4wtvGANj2xJl7lj?usp=sharing
Digital sovereignty: between myth and reality. How should we approach this in 2026?
An excellent talk on digital sovereignty and the situation in Europe, which is proving to be far more complex than it appears.
Many European companies currently rely on US cloud providers. To meet European regulatory requirements, these providers now offer so-called ‘sovereign’ services, operated via subsidiaries and infrastructure located in Europe.
However, the talk highlighted that geographical location does not necessarily guarantee complete legal independence. Despite their presence in Europe, these providers remain subject to certain US laws, notably the CLOUD Act, which raises questions about the true scope of data sovereignty.
The presentation also touched on other, lesser-known but equally significant US legal mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms allow access to data without the need for conventional legal proceedings.
The main message of the talk was clear: by 2026, digital sovereignty will not simply boil down to the location of datacenters or the existence of a European subsidiary. It will involve understanding the legal dependencies of providers and making informed trade-offs between compliance, sovereignty and operational constraints.
AI in Recruitment and its Impact on DevOps Profiles: Myths and Realities
This talk, presented by a recruiter, discusses the integration of AI into the DevOps recruitment process.
She explains that it is essential to have a good, up-to-date CV containing plenty of qualitative information, as it is all this data that the AI will process to help the recruiter identify the right candidate.
The dual role of AI in cybersecurity
This talk focuses on AI’s role in the defensive aspect of security.
Three areas were discussed. The first centered on the security of existing software, which is affected by the fact that large language models (LLMs) can identify vulnerabilities in existing software more quickly. How can this be prevented, and why software needs to be secured even more rigorously than before?
The second aspect concerns products that incorporate LLMs, such as chatbots. Advice was shared, notably the guidelines listed by OWASP.
The third aspect concerns AI agents, such as OpenClaw. Great care must be taken when using them to prevent the exfiltration of sensitive data.
The presenter also highlighted the impact of LLMs on CTFs (Capture The Flag). According to him, many participants now rely almost exclusively on AI to solve challenges, to the extent that problem-solving and analysis are sometimes entirely delegated to the model.
I also asked him about the future of these competitions. His response: CTFs will probably need to be reinvented to incorporate this new reality. Among the ideas mentioned was that the number of tokens consumed could become a scoring criterion, in order to reward not only the resolution of the challenges, but also efficiency in the use of LLMs.
Sovereign AI: French-Quebecois experience
Marmotte AI is the name of the joint project between the city of Chambéry (Savoie) and Shawinigan (Quebec).
The aim of this project is to provide a chatbot, enhanced by RAG, to staff in both cities to assist them in their day-to-day work.
The talk covers sovereign AI, RAG and business data.
The conclusion is that the first version of the chatbot does not meet its users’ needs. Users are receiving results of lower quality than those from ChatGPT. Nevertheless, the team has learnt a great deal and has drawn up a plan for the next steps to improve the product.
Discussion sessions (OpenSpace)
In addition to the presentations, rooms were set aside for discussions on various topics. Anyone interested in a particular topic was free to discuss it in the designated room.
Here is the list of OpenSpace sessions:
I personally took part in the discussion on techniques for optimizing sovereign AI.
The participants were generally very well-informed on the subject, which led to some particularly interesting exchanges. One observation came up repeatedly: everyone faces the same challenges when it comes to scaling AI infrastructure.
In practice, it remains very difficult to estimate the number and type of GPUs required to meet a given need. Numerous factors come into play, such as the number of users, the size, and complexity of the prompts, the model used, latency constraints, and the optimizations implemented. This high degree of variability makes the task particularly difficult and explains why there is not yet a universal method for sizing this type of workload.
Furthermore, one participant noted that GPU prices are constantly rising and that, as a hosting provider, he faces very long lead times for GPU deliveries.
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