
The European tech sector has reached a significant milestone with the introduction of virt8ra, the first sovereign edge cloud initiative in Europe. This groundbreaking project is led by OpenNebula Systems and has secured a substantial funding of €3 billion, falling under the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS). The initiative aims to transform the deployment of cloud and edge computing across the continent.
Virt8ra is a collaborative effort involving eight prominent European IT leaders: Arsys, BIT, Gdańsk University of Technology, Infobip, IONOS, Kontron, MONDRAGON Corporation, and Oktawave. Together, they are committed to providing computing and storage capabilities across six member states — Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain. This new infrastructure leverages European open-source technologies and emphasizes seamless portability and interoperability between various cloud providers.
This project is part of the extensive IPCEI-CIS framework, which encompasses 12 EU member states and has the backing of over 30 European organizations working to craft an open-source software stack for virtualization. This innovation is tailored to manage the cloud-edge spectrum, marking it as the largest open-source investment in EU history.
Ignacio M. Llorente, CEO of OpenNebula Systems and Chair of the Cloud-Edge Working Group of the EU Cloud Alliance, remarked, “The virt8ra testbed represents a turning point in the way in which EU tech champions are coming together to fix the cloud market. We are finally building a sovereign cloud-edge continuum based on vendor neutrality and European open source.”
A European Response to Global Cloud Giants
Virt8ra addresses crucial issues associated with cloud-edge computing, particularly the ultra-low latency required for advanced applications, including smart transportation systems, remote surgery, connected vehicles, and disaster management. Its architecture ranges from 5G towers to data centers and cloud providers, laying a foundation for a European alternative to global tech giants dominating the cloud sector.
Current features of the infrastructure include application portability, allowing seamless deployment and workload migration across diverse locations and providers, as well as interoperability for unified management of physical resources, virtual machines, and Kubernetes clusters. Plans are in motion to extend the infrastructure further and introduce advanced capabilities for edge-based distributed AI applications.
Virt8ra also aligns with the EU Data Act, set to go into effect in September 2025, which aims to foster a more competitive and interoperable cloud marketplace. The initiative intends to overcome longstanding challenges, such as high data egress costs, cumbersome migration processes, and the absence of standardization among cloud providers. By delivering an open-source technology stack, virt8ra empowers European businesses and government entities to enhance their digital sovereignty and lessen dependency on non-EU hyperscalers.
As Europe pushes toward a unified and self-sufficient digital ecosystem, virt8ra is a pivotal step toward achieving a competitive and secure technological future.
IONOS’s Senior Project Manager, Alina Rubina, highlighted their involvement by stating, “Through its IONORA project, IONOS is contributing to the virt8ra testbed by providing bare-metal servers located in our German Data Centers.” She noted that they aim to enhance collaboration through advanced features for automatic VM provisioning.
Additionally, Jože Orehar, the Head of the Cloud Platform Department at Kontron, expressed enthusiasm for being Slovenia’s first partner, stating, “Through this collaboration, we are contributing to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty and driving innovation.”
Cristiaan Brans, Project Leader at BIT, explained, “BIT is providing resources to the virt8ra infrastructure while also being a partner in ECOFED, an IPCEI-CIS project aimed at creating a federated European cloud.” He noted the intention to utilize the testbed for future testing and collaborative efforts within other IPCEI-CIS projects.
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