European collaboration launches Virt8ra

The sovereign Edge cloud platform is operational in six countries so far

A consortium of eight European technology organisations has joined forces to develop a sovereign Edge cloud platform, branded as Virt8ra. The initiative aims to strengthen Europe’s digital autonomy and cloud capabilities.

The Virt8ra platform brings together the expertise of Arsys, BIT, the Gdańsk University of Technology, Infobip, Ionos, Kontron, Mondragon Corporation, and Oktawave. Spearheaded by OpenNebula Systems, a specialist in open-source cloud and Edge solutions, this collaboration exemplifies the potential of cross-border teamwork in the tech industry.

Currently operational in six countries – Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain – Virt8ra is designed to foster interoperability between different cloud providers. It supports virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters through a unified control interface, enabling seamless deployment, execution, and migration of applications across various locations and cloud environments.

Plans for the platform include expanding its geographic reach and adding capabilities to create a “computing continuum” that spans infrastructure from 5G towers to large data centres.

Europe’s digital sovereignty

Miguel Martínez Vélez, chief product officer at Arsys says: “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. It is also the kick-off for future cloud-Edge continuum solutions that will boost the European data economy, digital sovereignty, and competitiveness.”

Key contributions to Virt8ra include bare-metal servers from Ionos’ German facilities, cloud resources provided by Kontron in Slovenia, and infrastructure from Mondragon in Spain’s Basque Country. The Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service supports the project, which is part of OpenNebula’s ONEnextgen initiative and co-funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme.

Virt8ra’s development aligns with the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS), a scheme endorsed by the European Commission in late 2023.

Europe’s efforts to establish interoperable cloud platforms have a long history. The Gaia-X initiative, launched in 2020, originally sought to reduce reliance on dominant US cloud providers. However, Gaia-X later shifted its focus to defining cloud policies and standards aligned with European values, rather than directly competing with hyperscalers.

More recently, Gaia-X has supported the Fulcrum project, which brings together smaller cloud providers to harness Europe’s unique geographic distribution. Additionally, former Gaia-X CEO Francesco Bonfiglio has been exploring the Dynamo project, which aims to create a decentralised cloud marketplace for European vendors.