Madrid, June 7, 2024.- The Government of Spain, through the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, funds three national projects for the research and development of advanced cloud computing technologies. This investment is part of the Project of Common European Interest in Integrated Computing Systems (IPCEI-CIS) and will provide EUR 111 million to finance projects of Telefónica, Open Nebula and Arsys.
The support of these projects is another step by the Government of Spain in the strengthening of our country’s infrastructure capacities to increase the impact of the potential development of 5G. An investment funded through the Next Generation EU Funds, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Spain is one of the twelve Member States participating in this European initiative. For its development, the Government resolved at the end of last year the national call UNICO IPCEI for competitive concurrence to finance direct participants.
The three estimated proposals are led by the companies Telefónica, OpenNebula and Arsys and will develop infrastructures and services for this data processing technology with access in the cloud. This investment aims to have an indirect impact across Europe, improving cross-border IT connectivity and supporting new generation IT projects in the cloud and edge.
Telefónica’s project aims to design and deploy at least 28 Edge nodes to create a decentralized, sustainable, secure, distributed and multi-vendor cloud solution. It aims to complement 5G technologies and fiber networks to offer advanced services such as the metaverse, industry 4.0 or immersive experiences.
The Open Nebula project aims to create open source software that will allow companies to deploy cloud-edge instances in the European cloud very easily. For its part, the Arsys project will create a digital twin to improve the sustainability and efficiency of Data Processing Centers (CPDs) and Edge nodes in the operation of the 5G network and a system for monitoring them to improve their management and performance.
The funding of these national projects in Spain goes in the direction of achieving the digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy of the European Union, in which this launch of the IPCEI-CIS marks a before and after in cloud computing and on the edge at European level. Participating companies will develop an open-source cloud and edge environment that will enable real-time, low-latency services using distributed computing resources close to users.
María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, said: “These 111 million investments are a crucial investment for projects that develop infrastructures and technologies for data processing in the cloud. It is another milestone in the reindustrialization that we are leading from the Government, implementing in our country technological activities and initiatives that are key in the present and will be decisive in the future.”
About IPCEI-CIS
The Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services Project (IPCEI-CIS) is the first IPCEI in the field of cloud and edge computing. It focuses on the development of Europe’s first interoperable and open-access cloud-to-edge data processing ecosystem by multiple providers.
The IPCEI-CIS, whose launch was presented a few months ago by representatives of the European Union in Brussels, plans to mobilise a total of 2.6 billion euros, with 1,200 coming from public funding.
It will develop data processing capabilities, software and data exchange tools that facilitate federated, reliable and energy-efficient distributed data processing technologies in the cloud and at the edge, as well as related services. The innovation offered by IPCEI CIS will offer a new range of possibilities for European businesses and citizens, which will drive the digital and environmental transition in Europe.