Dr. Alberto P. Martí discusses the IPCEI Cloud project’s aims to enhance Europe’s cloud-edge ecosystem through collaboration and open-source initiatives. He explains the importance of the federated edge model, the project’s approach to sustainability and digital sovereignty, and the role of smaller cloud providers.
What is an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)?
ICPEIs are mechanisms to provide State aid within the European Union where there is seen to be a need to remedy a serious economic disturbance in the EU market. Since 2018, the European Commission has authorised the provision of State aid for at least one IPCEI each year.
IPCEIs concern predominantly research and development activities as well as, sometimes, first industrial deployments. The most notable to date have been the projects focused on microelectronics, batteries, and hydrogen. Our IPCEI on Next-Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI Cloud or IPCEI-CIS) was approved in December 2023 and is the first one focused on cloud and edge computing.
What are the goals of the IPCEI Cloud?
The main objective of the IPCEI Cloud is to develop the first interoperable and openly accessible European data processing ecosystem around the so-called “multi-provider cloud-edge continuum”. We are going to develop European open source technology that will enable the emergence of federated, energy-efficient and trustworthy cloud and edge distributed data processing services.
So far, 12 Member States have come together to mobilise up to €1.2 billion in public funding, which is expected to unlock additional €1.4 billion in private investments. Right now, more than 100 partners across the European Union are involved in this project, including telco operators like Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and Orange. The open innovation provided by the IPCEI Cloud will enable a new spectrum of possibilities for European businesses and citizens, advancing the Digital and Green transition in Europe.
Why is edge computing such a key part of this project?
European players have a natural advantage when it comes to edge, given that they have physical presence across the geography, which gives them the ability to spin-up edge infrastructure resources for customers where they need it. It is in this emerging market where European companies can more easily launch new services and products, something that would bring some balance to a digital market that is right now dominated by a few non-EU hyperscalers and Big Tech corporations.
What is missing from that proposition today is the federation: we need to join forces and allow different providers working together across the continent to provide a seamlessly joined-up service to their business customers. The IPCEI Cloud is going to offer a European alternative stack for companies willing to leverage that new computing continuum, but also for future providers willing to offer new infrastructure resources and services in the EU cloud market.
How will you maintain this decentralised cloud/federated edge model?
One of main goals of the IPCEI Cloud is to enable the multi-provider cloud-edge continuum by abstracting the complexity brought by the growing number of entities in the value chain and deliver intuitive and user-friendly platforms. This abstraction layer will incorporate artificial intelligence and automation techniques for speeding up the deployment of private cloud-edge environments, the provisioning of new resources, or the optimisation of IT operations.
We are trying to build something that not only brings clear innovation to the cloud market in the short term, but also a model that consolidates the EU’s competitiveness in the long term. This collaborative mechanism, which is at the heart of the IPCEI model, is acquisition resistant, which is why one of our key objectives is the creation of a resilient industrial ecosystem around the IPCEI Cloud, incorporating open source vendors but also smaller cloud and edge service providers across the European Union, and beyond.
Can we expect the IPCEI Cloud projects to move the needle on edge in the next couple of years, despite the European Commission’s long term vision?
Mid-2026 marks the end of the research and innovation period supported by the IPCEI Cloud funding, so by then all projects should have produced tangible results and, in some strategic sectors such as mobility, health, manufacturing, and energy, even the first industrial deployments. Depending on the maturity of the specific technologies the IPCEI Cloud participants are working with, some may release their pilots ahead of this date.
In the case of OpenNebula Systems, for example, we are leveraging the many years of development behind the cloud and edge computing platform OpenNebula, which was first released as an open source product back in 2008. This approach is helping us speed up the integration with other technologies and platforms, like SAP’s Kubernetes multi-cluster management tool Gardener, while the rest of partners bring their own technological components to the necessary maturity level.
Who will fund the commercialisation of the technologies developed by IPCEI Cloud participants?
The projects delivered by the IPCEI Cloud partners follow a co-investment model, in which all participants are committed to investing their own resources, not only during the first phases of the project but also after the end of the NextGenerationEU program. In compliance with EU competition law, State aid is being applied to cover funding gaps related to the research and development of new technologies and services, up to their pilot deployment in industrial environments.
Anything beyond those pre-commercial innovation activities will have to be funded by the partners themselves in later phases of their projects, either with their own resources or through additional investments or partnerships with, for example, system integrators. This is also why it is so important to consolidate a larger ecosystem around the IPCEI Cloud, far beyond the core of companies funded by the project.
What is the collaboration model between telcos, startups and universities?
One of the main requirements for an IPCEI to be approved is the capacity to demonstrate that it will produce significant positive spill-over effects for non-participating companies and even for our competitors. This was part of the European Commission’s detailed competition assessment to minimise any undue distortions in the internal market.
All IPCEI Cloud partners have a strong commitment to share the results and knowledge of their projects with the broader European industry and scientific community, not only by releasing any new technologies as open source software but also by providing access to experimental edge nodes, by applying the IPCEI Cloud stack to additional sectors, by performing training sessions, by producing technical materials, etc.
What are the biggest concerns for industry players participating in the project?
The main concern right now is about ensuring the robustness of the mechanisms that we are putting in place for long-term industrial collaboration. There is an understanding that for these next-generation cloud and edge technologies to be really sustainable, strong cooperation among EU partners must continue well beyond the end of the funding period. The key element for that is the creation of a solid open source community around the IPCEI Cloud; a structure that will materialise our shared commitment to maintain and improve this European sovereign stack in the long run.
I like to see the IPCEI Cloud as a turning point, not only in the process of defining in practical terms what “European digital sovereignty” means, but also in helping the EU industry to retake control of the cloud and edge technologies that are at the core of their businesses. The only way to do that is by implementing a new European open source governance model that guarantees that both strategic and technical decisions are truly aligned with the EU’s values, needs and priorities.
Alberto P. Martí has spent most of his career in Spain and in the UK, both in Tech and in Higher Education. As VP of Open Source Innovation at OpenNebula Systems, he deals with strategic collaborations with cloud and edge providers, other open source initiatives, and CIOs from relevant vendors. He is one of the initial promoters of the SovereignEdge.EU initiative, coordinating involvement in the Horizon Europe programme and in other joint R&D activities based on European open source technologies for the cloud-edge continuum. In March 2024, Alberto was elected Chair of the Industry Facilitation Group of the new €3B IPCEI Cloud.
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