OpenStack Meetup December – Community Update, New Initiatives & Hands-On Labs

Dear Stackers,
We are excited to invite you to our upcoming December meetup. This session will focus on the current status and future direction of the Athens OpenStack User Group, the introduction of new community initiatives, and a presentation of recent developments in cutting-edge open infrastructure technologies. Attendees will gain insights into our production OpenStack environment, learn how to begin their OpenStack journey, and explore practical ways to contribute to the broader OpenInfra community.
The meetup will also include a hands-on technical workshop. Participants will be guided through the deployment of Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring using their own laptops and virtualization tools. Our team will deploy Prometheus and Grafana in our OpenStack environment presenting to the participants how to launch and configure services on an OpenStack VM.

Agenda
18:00 – 18:10 | Welcome
18:10 – 18:20 | Athens OpenStack User Group: Goals & Current Activities
Presenter: Michael Xevgenis, Organizer
A brief status update and discussion on the main objectives of the meetup group, with a focus on strengthening the OpenInfra community in Greece. The presentation also includes highlights from the OpenInfra Summit, featuring technologies such as OpenStack for AI workloads, Kata Containers, and StarlingX for edge computing.

18:20 – 18:30 | Introduction to the OpenCloud Academy Initiative
Presenter: Michael Xevgenis, Organizer
Team: Evangellos Mitikas, Evangellos Skevis, Konstantinos Mpirmpas
An overview of the OpenCloud Academy, its mission, team members, goals, and the technology verticals the team is exploring.

18:30 – 19:30 | Workshop Session (Bring Your Own Laptop)
Presenters: Evangellos Mitikas, Evangellos Skevis, Konstantinos Mpirmpas
Phase 1 – Getting Started with OpenStack
Walkthrough of our production infrastructure and a guided tour of OpenStack through the Horizon dashboard. Participants will learn how to get started using:

• DevStack for a local all-in-one OpenStack installation
• Public OpenStack cloud environments offered through vendor coupons

The session will also highlight paths for contributing to the community.

Phase 2 – Deploying Prometheus & Grafana for Monitoring
Step-by-step installation and configuration of Prometheus and Grafana on an OpenStack VM. Attendees will configure their own monitoring stack using their personal laptops and virtualization tools (i.e. VirtualBox).

19:30 – 20:00 | Open Discussion & Future Collaboration
Open discussion on ideas, upcoming projects, and opportunities for collaboration.

Event Details
🗓 When: Friday, 12 December 2025
📍 Where: University of West Attica
Ancient Olive Oil Building, Thivon 250, Aigaleo
Room ZB109 (CONSERT)
🏛 Format: On-site
⏱ Duration: 18:00 – 20:00
🎯 Target Audience: Students, Researchers, Professionals
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Organizer:
Michael Xevgenis