ShArc at ECS 2025 in Duesseldorf

The European Collaboration Summit 2025 in Duesseldorf, also known as ECS 2025, turned out to be an unforgettable milestone for our team behind ShArc—the innovative tool that revolutionizes SharePoint archiving and storage. Held from Monday to Wednesday in the heart of Europe's digital transformation scene, ECS brought together IT leaders, tech innovators, and digital visionaries. And right in the middle of it all: our ShArc booth. From meaningful conversations to a podium finish in the Microsoft AI & Cloud Contest, our experience at ECS wasn’t just productive—it was powerful. 

While the official conference days started on Monday, the ShArc booth was in full swing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Visitors couldn’t miss it—thanks to a few smart, well-placed decisions:

When multiple departments manage data without a unified governance strategy, inconsistencies and errors can arise. A strong data governance framework establishes standard data definitions, formats, and validation rules, ensuring that data remains uniform and reliable across all business functions.

Including one of the ShArc developers, so that no question had to remain unanswered.

Our offer was the center of attention. We only wanted to address ECS visitors who really had a need for our solution.

“Reduce SharePoint storage costs by at least 50%.” That one line  in combination with a clearly understandable graphic sparked more conversations than we could have anticipated. It was direct, specific, and instantly relatable.

Above the booth drew smiles and curious looks from afar. Yes—it was also funny. But it worked. It brought people in. "We saw the shark and had to come over" was something we heard more than once. And when they came closer, they stayed.

We had the booth staffed with the right people. One of our core Developers, our Product Owner and our Sales Manager explained ShArc very well and were also able to answer technical questions easily so that people got an understanding of the tool. Even our CEO, who was a true networking engine, showed off with his ShArc knowledge. Together, they gave live demos, answered technical deep-dives, explained business cases, and sparked new ideas in real-time. Sometimes, multiple demos were running parallel.

Many conversations followed a familiar pattern:

• "We didn’t even know this was possible."
• "We've been dealing with high SharePoint storage costs for years."
• "You mean we can offload without disrupting our users?"

These weren’t just curious visitors. These were organizations actively looking for better ways to manage Microsoft 365 storage—and instantly understood the value of ShArc.

One of the major highlights was our Product Owner Marco, who presented ShArc on the Start-Up Stage. His presentation on efficient SharePoint data offloading with ShArc and the live demo get heads nodding—and it got people walking.

Each time he spoke, we noticed an increase in visitor numbers at our booth. People came with notes, questions, and concrete use cases from the talk. It became clear:

When you speak their language, the right people show up.

It also helped that ShArc isn't just theory. It’s a working, deployable solution already making a difference in real-world environments.

One of the proudest moments for our team came on stage:
Out of numerous startups competing in the Microsoft for Startups contest for  innovative AI & Cloud technology, ShArc was awarded 3rd place.

The jury recognized not only the smart integration with Azure and SharePoint, but also the simplicity and real-world impact of our tool.

Why did we stand out?

• Real cost savings: 50% on SharePoint storage
• Enterprise-ready features: like offloading rules, file version trimming, and seamless retrieval
• Clear user benefit: with full user experience maintained via stub files and direct access in SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive

This recognition gave us visibility, credibility—and even more visitors at the ShArc booth.

We kept hearing consistent feedback—and it wasn’t just about the product.

• "This is exactly what our IT department is looking for."
• "Finally a solution that doesn’t try to replace SharePoint, but works with it."
• "You’ve made something technical feel very simple."
• "How fast can we set it up?"

But it wasn’t all business. We also had a lot of positive words about the approachability and energy of the Layer2 leading solutions team. People felt that we were genuinely listening, not just pitching. And that made a difference.

Trade shows are always a logistical challenge—but ECS felt different.There was a sense of camaraderie, pride, and joy in seeing how ShArc resonated with people.

For our dev team, it was a chance to hear real-time user feedback and to explain technical innovations like our stub file mechanism or OAuth 2.0 authentication in person. For sales, it was a goldmine of qualified conversations and awesome feedback. For leadership, it was a moment of validation: We’re solving a real problem and people are taking notice.

We didn’t leave ECS 2025 with just contacts. We left with clarity. Our tool ShArc is solid. The message resonates and the need is real.

Here's what we're doing next:

• We’ll immediately start to book demos with our new contacts who asked for them.
• We’ll create case studies, success stories, videos, and guides as soon as possible.
• On LinkedIn, X and our website you can discover some impressions of the ECS 2025 in Duesseldorf during the next weeks.
• Our focus is still the reduction of your storage costs, optimization of archiving and data lifecycle management in Microsoft 365.
• And of course we’re integrating the feedback we got at the ECS into our roadmap —to keep improving ShArc for admins, CIOs, and end-users alike.

To everyone who stopped by, asked questions, shared challenges, or smiled at our shark balloon: thank you.

As well as to the team from ECS, Run Events, Düsseldorf Congress GmbH and Messeprojekt GmbH.

And to our incredible team: Marco, Henrik, Alexander, and Matthias—your expertise and energy made ShArc shine. Thanks also to graphics, accounting and the team in the background who created ShArc—especially the team members who couldn't be at ECS.

The ECS 2025 showed us that we’re not just building a product. We’re shaping how companies think about storage, archiving and data management in Microsoft 365.

And we’re only just getting started.