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In December 2023, the European Commission (EC) approved the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS). With €1.2 billion in State Aid and €1.4 billion in private investments, this open source project is supported by 12 EU Member States and implemented by more than 120 industrial partners. Its main objective is to develop the first interoperable and openly accessible data processing ecosystem in Europe. The model is intended to offer vendor neutrality, tangible technological sovereignty, and provide a “made in Europe” alternative designed to reduce entry barriers, foster competition and innovation—including for local “proximity cloud” providers—and address critical issues such as cybersecurity and the sustainability of digital infrastructures.
OpenNebula Unveils IPCEI-CIS Reference Architecture
The IPCEI-CIS offers a “made in Europe” alternative based on leveraging the many technological and innovation capabilities in the EU to create the first multi-provider Cloud-Edge Continuum—reducing entry barriers to the digital market, fostering competition and new business models for “proximity cloud” providers, and tackling key issues such as cybersecurity and the sustainability of digital infrastructures.
The IPCEI-CIS Industry Facilitation Group has now announced the official publication of the first release of the IPCEI-CIS Reference Architecture. This initial version is the first major deliverable of the project and provides a path for the integration of additional telco edge resources, cloud services, and technological components into this new ecosystem. It is also designed as the baseline for future IPCEIs on Distributed AI and Edge Computing Infrastructure and has the potential to become the technological core of future pan-European initiatives such as the EuroStack.
The document offers a structured, layered framework to guide the development of a federated cloud-edge ecosystem capable of supporting next-generation, data-driven applications across sectors such as manufacturing, mobility, and energy, as well as enabling distributed artificial intelligence. The modular architecture spans eight core layers—from physical infrastructure and network systems to virtualization, platform services, orchestration, data, AI, and application—ensuring interoperability across distributed, multi-provider edge cloud environments. Cross-cutting domains include federation mechanisms aligned with the EU Data Act, integrated management capabilities, robust security and compliance, and sustainability by design.
Several pilot scenarios—such as the Virt8ra multi-provider cloud infrastructure, based on OpenNebula—are already underway to validate its design and implementation in real-world environments, identify technological gaps, and refine integration mechanisms with additional components.
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