The German and French-promoted “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI) for next-generation cloud infrastructures and services is gaining momentum. The Federal Ministry of Economics has approved the early start of a SAP sub-project, enabling the Walldorf-based software group to help develop open reference architectures for a European cloud edge infrastructure. The SAP project is the first of a total of 22 German sub-initiatives. Twelve EU countries are involved in the project, which aims to bring together the central and decentralised computing capacities of a wide variety of actors on a common technological basis.
The total investment volume of all European partners is around €5 billion, with Germany initially contributing up to €750 million. “Sustainability and resilient usage scenarios” are at the forefront of the project, aiming to enable provider-independent data processing in real-time across company and national borders. The project will be “synchronised” with Gaia-X, the older European cloud project. Cloud and edge computing are fundamental to future technologies such as big data and AI.
SAP will work with other IPCEI partners to create basic components such as software components including interfaces for an open and highly interoperable European cloud infrastructure. Basic services for computer clouds are about moving the data processing as close as possible to the user at the edge of a network, enabling the handling of programs and data under fair competitive conditions. A common operating system for services with artificial intelligence is planned, and other cloud and solution providers, especially from medium-sized companies, should have the opportunity to integrate into the planned decentralised ecosystem without major requirements.
Siemens, Deutsche Telekom and Atos will also play an important role in the project. The aim is to create advanced cloud solutions that enable a high-performance offering for the self-determined storage, use and processing of corporate data in Europe. The aid project will be a decisive contribution to stronger European digital sovereignty, offering decentralised data processing which is advantageous or indispensable for many applications, such as autonomous driving, data analysis in production or the decentralisation of the energy system.
