The ‘Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services’ proposal, which was presented by seven EU nations for EUR 1.2 billion in state aid, has been approved by the European Commission. Five of the 19 participating companies are Italian: Tim, Reply, Tiscali, Fincantieri, and Informatics Engineering
Brussels – Italy demonstrates that it is not just hanging around in the first significant project of joint European interest on the most cutting edge technology, from cloud to edge computing. Following the approval by the European Commission of the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in the areas of edge computing (computing done on-site or close to a specific data source) and cloud computing (the provision of computing resources over the Internet), EUR 1.2 billion in state aid has been made available. Italian companies will be heavily involved in these projects, making up a quarter of all those involved in the 19 highly innovative projects in this sector.
The seven participating member states—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Hungary, and, most importantly, Italy—have collectively notified the IPCEI, or “Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services,” about their intention to provide public funding. This funding is expected to spur an additional EUR 1.4 billion in private investment. Since five of the 19 participating companies are Italian, they will lead the way in creating Europe’s first openly available and interoperable data processing ecosystem. The EU Commission notes that the companies active in Italy implementing an equal number of projects are Tim, Reply, Tiscali, Fincantieri, and Engineering Ingegneria Informatica. These projects will culminate in an open-source architecture that can provide services in real time and at low latency (i.e., a few milliseconds) from distributed IT resources close to the user, “thus reducing the need to transmit large volumes of data to centralised cloud servers.”
The various projects will support the Union’s digital and green transition by offering a range of new services to European businesses and citizens, from the energy sector to the maritime or health sector. These projects span the whole spectrum of the cloud edge, from the fundamental software layer to sector-specific applications. The research, development, and initial industrial implementation phases will occur between 2023 and 2031, “with varying timeframes depending on the project and the companies involved,” following the distribution of governmental aid and the availability of private funds. By the end of 2027, the open-source reference infrastructure, an important initiative of common European interest, is scheduled to have its first outcome. Along with the positions that will be produced throughout the commercialization phase, it is anticipated that during these phases, at least one thousand highly qualified direct and indirect jobs will be created.
Competition Commissioner Didier Reynders stated that the decision made today, December 5, “ensures that public support is well targeted and sufficient to enable the project to pursue its ambitious goals, while safeguarding a level playing field and ensuring that strong positive repercussions can be generated across the Union.” “This important project of common European interest is key to achieving breakthrough innovations in cloud and edge technologies that meet European requirements for interoperability, data privacy, sustainability, and cybersecurity,” said Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for Internal Markets, with even more enthusiasm. As stated by cabinet member von der Leyen, the objective is also to “provide the technologies and solutions to achieve the goals of our Digital Decade 2030 Strategy,” namely the adoption of cloud solutions by more than 10,000 edge nodes throughout Europe and 75% of EU firms. Commissioner Breton promises that “Europe will strengthen its innovative leadership in next generation data services.”
