EU tech firms team up to launch 'Virt8ra' sovereign edge cloud platform

Eight European tech organizations have teamed up to launch a sovereign edge cloud platform aimed at providing portability and interoperability across multiple cloud providers.

Virt8ra, coordinated by OpenNebula Systems, includes backing from Arsys, BIT, Gdańsk University of Technology, Infobip, IONOS, Kontron, Mondragon, and Oktawave, and will provide computing and storage resources in a host of countries across the region.

This includes services in Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Slovenia, and Spain.

"Through this collaboration, we are contributing to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty and driving innovation across the continent," said Jože Orehar, head of the cloud platform department at Kontron.

"This distributed environment will enable further research and development on a cloud continuum made of heterogeneous, country-oriented clouds."

The move forms part of the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS), approved by the European Commission in December 2023 and supported by 12 EU member states.

The initiative aims to bolster research and investment in edge and cloud computing technologies across the union, and create a decentralized edge computing framework.

As part of the virt8ra integration cluster, more than 30 European companies are defining an open source software stack for virtualization - a home-grown, vendor-neutral solution for managing the cloud and edge computing.

The IPCEI Cloud, with more than €3 billion of investment, represents the largest open source project in the history of the EU.

Alberto Martí, chair of the IPCEI-CIS Industry Facilitation Group, welcomed the move as a positive step toward bolstering sovereign infrastructure across the region.

“I’m proud to see the EU industry finally taking the lead in developing strategic open source technologies and delivering tangible solutions for creating sovereign digital infrastructure across Europe."

The virt8ra infrastructure is being seen as a way of reducing the dependence of EU businesses and public organizations on US-based hyperscalers.

Group members said the initiative represents the first step toward building a European alternative for next-generation use cases demanding ultra-low latency, on top of a computing continuum ranging from 5G cell towers to cloud providers and data centers.

"The virt8ra testbed is our first step at Arsys towards the development of the meta-orchestration software that will enable a multi-vendor solution from technology providers across Europe," said Miguel Martínez Vélez, chief product officer at Arsys.

"It is also the kick-off for future cloud-edge continuum solutions that will boost the European data economy, digital sovereignty, and competitiveness."

The current version of the virt8ra infrastructure already supports interoperability — managing physical resources, virtual machines, and Kubernetes clusters through a single control plane — and portability, allowing applications to be easily deployed, executed, and migrated across different locations and cloud providers.

The group says it plans to add more locations and new features to meet the evolving needs of the cloud market, including the deployment of distributed AI applications at the edge.

"The virt8ra testbed represents a turning point in the way in which EU tech champions are coming together to fix the cloud market," said Ignacio M. Llorente, CEO of OpenNebula Systems and chair of the Cloud-Edge working group of the EU Cloud Alliance.

"We are finally building a sovereign cloud-edge continuum based on vendor neutrality and European open source."