Servala Ecosystem Day 2025 Recap - Sovereignty in Action
From Idea to Ecosystem
Two years ago Servala was only an idea - a bold thought about how cloud services in Europe could become open, interoperable and sovereign rather than locked-in, proprietary and constrained by geography or legislation. Yesterday at the VSHNtower in Zürich that idea became something tangible, shared and collaborative.
The first Servala Ecosystem Day brought together cloud providers, software vendors, and consulting partners. All shared the same belief: Switzerland and Europe need sovereign digital infrastructure - and we can build it together.
And as if perfectly scripted, we had 42 attendees. Of course it had to be 42.
The Evolution to Servala - The Sovereign App Store
Servala has now evolved from a concept into reality: Servala - The Sovereign App Store. More than a product, it is becoming a space where stakeholders across the technology landscape collaborate to build a trusted, interoperable digital ecosystem. As Tobias said on the slides: “It’s more than just a product - it’s an ecosystem where everyone wins. You’re already part of it by joining today.”
The official agenda shaped the afternoon:
welcome and Servala vision
ecosystem introductions
co-creation workshop
Mulled wine and networking on the rooftop
To set the stage, we introduced the core of the Servala value proposition: sovereignty. Not as a buzzword, but broken down into meaningful principles.
Understanding Sovereignty means answering:
Confidentiality: Who has access to my data? Is there lawful or unlawful access?
Availability: Do I always have access to my data? Can someone else shut it off?
Control: Am I locked in, or do I have real freedom of choice?
We then mapped these values directly to Servala:
Confidentiality: choose and always know where your data is stored
Availability: decentralized operation across many participants with real exit strategies
Control: everything open-source or based on standard off-the-shelf software, never proprietary lock-in
From the user perspective the experience stays simple:
has a need for a service
finds it on Servala
selects the best matching cloud and managed service provider
starts using the service
receives consulting support if needed
Co-creation Workshops
After setting this context we moved into the most important part of the day: the co-creation workshops. Together we explored key questions that now directly shape the future roadmap:
what does success look like for you?
what role do you want to take in the ecosystem?
what do you need from Servala to succeed?
which technical assets or frameworks would help?
where do you see overlaps with others?
where is deep collaboration needed?
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Each group prioritized its findings and defined the top 3 priorities. The goal was clear: build common understanding, gather concrete input for the Servala roadmap and identify potential areas for Special Interest Groups (SIGs).
And something significant happened: the first SIGs already formed before the session even ended. Discussions continued into the mulled wine networking apéro and many participants expressed interest in joining collaboration tracks.
Throughout the day several patterns became clear:
sovereignty must reduce complexity, not add more
interoperability requires shared standards and governance, not just technology
clarity of roles between CSPs, ISVs, consulting partners and enterprise clouds accelerates progress
the community is ready to co-own the next stage of the journey
Servala is no longer just a platform
Servala is becoming a coordinated movement toward operational, scalable and user-centric digital sovereignty in Switzerland and Europe.
Next steps will include:
consolidating the workshop outputs
forming and enabling SIGs to begin their work
continuing co-creation in future online and in-person sessions
preparing the next Servala Ecosystem Day
To everyone who attended, contributed, challenged assumptions, shared feedback and shaped the next chapter of Servala - thank you. You transformed a vision into momentum.
We are just at the beginning - and we are building sovereignty together, one ecosystem milestone at a time.
Watch the highlights in our slideshow video:
