H-CLOUD will set up and coordinate a sustainable forum of Cloud Computing stakeholders. The forum will connect Cloud stakeholders, increase awareness and collaboration across stakeholder groups, provide cross-fertilization opportunities, and stimulate the adoption of research and innovation outputs. Leveraging and complementing the results of the European Cloud Strategy 2012, H-CLOUD will work with stakeholders to identify achievements, success factors, and gaps to define a set of strategic goals for the Cloud Computing Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (CC-SRIA) for Horizon Europe. The CC-SRIA will be developed using a methodology rooted in strategy and performance management thinking. The CC-SRIA roadmap will guide the transition from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe.
While Cloud technologies are evolving at an incredible pace and new initiatives within and outside Europe are constantly bootstrapped in different communities, this proliferation increases fragmentation and leads to (often unconscious) competitive efforts rather than to collaborative frameworks. On shorter term, it remains unclear if European projects will be able to contribute to key initiatives shaping the future of technologies, standards and policies (such as cncf.io or OpenStack). Despite constant technological progress, when compared to the US, Europe lacks the skills needed to adopt and leverage Cloud technologies. Adoption by SMEs remains limited, which affects the size of EU-based Cloud providers striving to compete in the global market. This issue is a primary barrier that requires urgent actions by the whole European ecosystem connected to Cloud, from education and research to industry. Moreover, different communities often take diverging paths and, albeit using the same base technology, end up with different and incompatible solutions to the same problems, hindering collaboration and knowledge transfer across domains. Whether these differences can in the medium term be reconciled, and how, is not yet fully explored. At this moment we are still lacking a new vision to guide the next ten years of research activity in Cloud technologies and upcoming EU research programmes. These and other challenges need proper coordination among the Cloud community across Europe and beyond and this is where H-CLOUD proposes to create impact.
Accordingly, H-CLOUD will provide strategic guidance on how to address challenges and opportunities to unlock the potential of Cloud Computing (CC) as core to the Digital Single Market objectives. H-CLOUD will cover the research, technological, standardization and organizational questions while operating in as a “living Forum” to increase the impact of R&D CC programme activities and projects in Europe and beyond. H-CLOUD will also provide a framework to establish the H-CLOUD Forum as a meeting point for all stakeholders, including research, industry, users, regulators and policy makers within the H2020 context and beyond. Building on the results of former CSAs and other initiatives1, H-CLOUD will make a step forward by acting as an accelerator for the whole European Cloud Computing ecosystem. H-CLOUD will intervene and assist stakeholders in all steps to engage and create value and will set up a self-sustaining H-CLOUD Forum. The Forum will be key to decrease the current fragmentation by:
- Aligning the stakeholders on a common vision and strategy.
- Promoting collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing.
- Ensuring effective value creation out of relevant research and innovation efforts and achievements.
- Identifying incentives and mechanisms to sustain efforts of the community in a durable and impactful way.
PARTNERS
Martel GmbH (Coordinator)
Stichting EGI (EGI Foundation)
AcrossLimits Ltd
IDC Italia SRL
POSITION for CLOUD COMMUNITY MANAGER to be opened soon
DURATION: Jan 2020 - Dec 2021
