HybridCloudGroup.org™

preserves HCCUG.org™ logo & url for continuity of 10+ years

… more info in About us



Our 6 community user-groups/sigs/meetups/hangout


2019 ♦ Houston TensorFlow & Applied AI/ML user group (TensorFlow.org approved) … Valentino Moreign (primary organizer)

… with support from Microsoft, AWS, Google, etc.,

2019 ♦ Houston Kotlin user group (KotlinLang.org/JetBrains approved) … Zane Moreign (primary organizer)

… with support from Kotlin/JetBrians & Java Champions, etc.,

2019 ♦ Houston PostgreSQL user group … Zane Moreign (primary organizer)

… with support from PostgreSQL leadership, etc.,

2018 ♦ Houston Google Cloud user group (a.k.a. GDG Cloud Houston) … Google requested us to run it … Valentino Moreign (primary organizer)

DISCLAIMER:⟹ you can Speak/Attend any our our events knowing your PROFILE data will NOT be given to Google :-) ⟹ click here for details

2017 ♦ HCCUG.org™ revamp … and exploded from a cozy <300 members to ~1K in 1 year … see about us


2010 ♦ Houston C & C++ user group… to focus on what {Tex} calls Crux Computing (covering Rust, D, etc.)

… ORGANIZERS: C++: David Cravey, and C: Zane Moreign & {Tex}… Houston C++ user group was founded by Microsoft MVP of MVP's, our friend, & all-round great guy, DAVID CRAVEY, … expanded focus , with David's blessing, to include more C lang efforts of Zane Moreign

2008 ♦ Houston Cloud Computing user group… {HCCUG.org} to focus on Performance Computing (includes Cluster, IoT, and Quantum computing)

… by {Tex} & Samantha… founded in 2008 as Houston Cloud & Cluster user group focused on HPC & the "then new" thing called Cloud… and was renamed to Houston Cloud Computing to highlight us as THE Cloud folks for Houston, after all our founder/Tex was part of the Microsoft's cloud happenings under NDA


Next Event: Jan-29, Wednesday, @ 6:30ish pm

Hands-On with Swift for TensorFlow – A Next-Generation Deep Learning Framework ~ by Ethan Saadia

… click arrow to see description

Swift is a modern and expressive programming language developed and open-sourced by Apple. Although the language of choice for Apple platforms, Google has chosen Swift for its next-generation deep learning framework. Swift’s static type system and performance make it a great fit for machine learning, and Google has integrated many powerful tools into the platform. The talk will cover these major features, and then I will do a live image classification demo. Automatic Differentiation Computing the gradients of models and loss functions are essential for training machine learning models. Swift for TensorFlow includes automatic differentiation that enables you to differentiate functions and custom types without extra code. Python Interoperability Python has a myriad of prominent libraries for data science and numerical computing, including NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib. As a younger language, Swift does not yet have libraries to provide all this functionality, but Google has made Python fully interoperable with Swift. You can seamlessly import Python libraries, use Python objects in Swift, and vice versa. Image Classification Demo Swift for TensorFlow is fully usable without any installation on any device with an internet connection. The toolchain is preinstalled on special Google Colab notebooks, Jupyter notebooks hosted in the cloud that work like Google Docs. I will provide a link to a custom notebook so attendees can follow along with the demo on their own devices. The demo involves creating a dataset, designing a convolutional neural network, building a custom training loop, visualizing model performance during training, and running inferences. The notebook showcases Swift for TensorFlow and its key features, Python interoperability and automatic differentiation. Swift is designed to feel familiar, so the code is approachable to developers who may not be familiar with Swift or machine learning. Here is the notebook link: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1VbOH3sWYCe14CNnvvjAVkN0mQepv05Ng


2020 Cadence:

★ Last TUESDAY ⟹ March, April, June, July, Aug, & Sep … our normal cadence

★ Last WEDNESDAY ⟹ Jan, Feb, May, & Dec … special events


Announcements for 2020


1 ⟹ Call for Speakers is now open for 2020 — submit here:

NOTE: Speakers will be considered for the Conference too


2 ⟹ HybridCloudNow™ Conference, Oct-2020 … interested? click here to "ENGAGE"

for all the Non-Trekkies out there … click here to contact the organizers

3 ⟹ Launches & Improvements in progress ...

~ Our core principles remain, such as, MEMBER PRIVACY (attendee list, food choices, etc.)

      • In 10+ years, we have NEVER given out our member/attendee list, and thank our sponsors for respecting this!!
      • new Sponsor-invitee Feedback: Sponsors need to know who they invited and who showed up. Sponsors get a list of, "ONLY those attendees who flag they were invited by that particular Sponsor" during attendee registration (e.g., those who flagged "via Google employee" for event-190220) — Launched!

~ New streamlined focus between meetups & events,

      • new entity HybridCloudGroup.org to take over HCCUG.org's efforts & more — Launched!
      • streamlined Houston Cloud Computing user group back to our roots of performance/cluster/distributed computing & more — Launched!
      • new Houston TensorFlow & Applied AI/ML user group — Launched!
      • new Houston Kotlin user group organized by Zane Moreign, with approval from JetBrains — Launching July-2019 !
      • new C language focus added by Zane Moreign (inherited from Tex), with David Cravey's blessing, to David's C++ user group — Launched!
      • new VARYING Monthly Cadence, multiple Venue option, multiple focus User Groups, and more — Launched!
>>> THANK YOU MICROSOFT for ALL THESE YEARS!!!
        • More venues to be announced for other events as needed.

~ New "NETWORKING" focused programs & events:

      • new HybridCloudLabs™ BRING YOU LAPTOP program for hands-on topics, such as, Machine Learning, Azure, Linux, Zane's Simple_Safety™ series, etc.
      • new Network-n-Talks program to focus on more time for Peer-to-Peer networking/connections/chats, while still having some focused Talk(s).
      • new first HybridCloudNow™ conference with HybridCloudFest™ (after-event), HybridCloudConnect™, and New HybridCloudInsiders™ are in collaboration with HybridDecisions.com
      • new LIMITED Sponsor program ~ we want our members to feel comfortable attending without being badgered with access to select vendors, e.g., Microsoft, Google, RedHat, Amazon/AWS, etc.

~ New membership program:

      • ALL our Meetup.com user groups will continue to be @no-charge membership for 2019 :-)
      • We strive to ensure NO WASTAGE of — (a) Food, (b) Effort, and (c) Resources, e.g., denying a seat to someone who really wanted to attend/learn/network — while still trying to provide more services/benefits (e.g., dietary constraints) and taking care of those who take care of such things, and recognize Speakers & Volunteers, etc.
      • Therefore, ONLY confirmed reservations will have access to events. Ensure you are a registered HybridCloudGroup.org member. Only those registered on HCCUG.org site are eligible to be confirmed and can provide us their preferences, such as, food choices/dietary constraints!
      • To be able to afford these things, we will be launching new LIMITED sponsorship program, new option for members who wish to pay/support our efforts (of course with new benefits) … and welcome any ideas/suggestions!
      • Those who know us know we support those who support us …
        1. Those who braved traffic/weather/etc., over the years to attend our events, i.e., Active Members*** before 2019 will be grandfathered into one of the new paid membership levels ~ let's continue to grow together!!!
        2. Those who Serve(d), e.g., our Veterans, etc. we aim to provide extremely feasible options




** NO monthly meetings in Nov & Dec as that's family time but stay tuned as there could be some surprises :-)

***Active Members are those who have attended at a minimum of "1" in-person event, yes you read that correctly, "one" event/meetup in a 12 month rolling period and are registered here/HybridCloudGroup.org!




In addition to our groups (listed in the header) ~ we believe the below groups/events provide great value for our members ~ above all, they are awesome folks!!!

  • NOTE: We are NOT paid by any of the following entities/persons to list/advertise their events here.

▹ Houston LINUX User Group

— the ONLY user group that meets EVERY WEDNESDAY — has a consistent showing of some GENUINE folks— we are moving our monthly cadence effective 2020 to do more with this group … enough said!!!

▹ Houston TechFest


— we thank them for having us every year (except 2018 due to schedule conflict)

▹ SQL Saturday Hou & BR


— we thank Houston Area SQL Server User Group for having us speak at every SQL Saturday in Houston
— and brssug for having us in 2018 & 2019