CyberEurope

Cloud Computing in Europe (Part 2)

By providing computing resources as a service rather than a product, “cloud computing” is revolutionizing access to software, processing power, and storage. Its development is being aided by groundbreaking research carried out in Europe. In this and in the previous issue, we present the most relevant European projects in this area.

Building a cloud that will continue to work better and better in the future is also a focus of EU R&D funding, and QoS features heavily in another of these projects. The focus of Ensure is on storage, and, more specifically, on using cloud resources preserve digital data to safely and securely for the long term—a crucial requirement for many companies and organizations. The project is focused on sectors such as healthcare, clinical trials, and financial services with a view to demonstrating how organizations can securely leverage scalable infrastructure; conform to contractual, regulatory, and legal requirements; and manage the long term integrity of intellectual property or highly personal data.

Meanwhile, cloud accessibility is the main goal of Venus-C. Aimed particularly at SMEs and the scientific research community, the team behind the project has taken a user centric approach to the cloud to develop scalable and interoperable cloud resources, combining both open source and proprietary solutions to offer the best of both worlds.

Innovatively, the researchers' approach was guided by the requirements of end users themselves: 27 teams of researchers from across Europe and 15 selected pilot projects that received seed money from Venus-C following an open call that attracted 60 proposals from 17 countries. The pilot teams' cloud computing requirements have steered the design of the infrastructure, which is being used for many different applications, from drug discovery to civil engineering and civil protection.

In the ExtremeFactories project, meanwhile, researchers are harnessing cloud resources to enable globally networked SMEs to adopt systematic innovation processes, helping them become virtual organizations with a view to aiding product design, development, and production. The platform will support SMEs in collaborating and innovating in a networked environment.

The solution will address the needs of manufacturing companies and will seek both product and process innovation. This platform will provide SMEs with services to support them in any step of the innovation life cycle, from problem detection, through inception and prioritization of ideas, to implementation and follow-up. The project has a strong industrial basis, combining the efforts of seven industrial manufacturing SMEs.

In the LinkedTV initiative, a team from eight European countries are building on the convergence of television and the Internet, weaving content together to deliver a single, integrated, and interactive experience. An online cloud of networked audiovisual content will be accessible regardless of place, device, or source, and the experience will be of “TV” whether it is seen on a TV set, smartphone, tablet, or personal computing device. For example, a library of documentary films and archives will put shared cultural knowledge and heritage at the fingertips of every connected citizen.

Meanwhile, researchers working in the Cloud4All initiative are using cloud computing in a pioneering way to boost accessibility to technology for people with disabilities when and where they need it. Instead of individual products and services being adapted for a person with special needs, cloud powered technology will automatically personalize the product or service for them, activating and augmenting any built-in accessibility features that the product or service has based on a profile of the user's requirements.

From the sheer range of these applications, it is clear that the cloud has a great deal of potential to be developed and exploited.

“Cloud computing will change our economy. It can bring significant productivity benefits to all, right through to the smallest companies, and also to individuals. It promises scalable, secure services for greater efficiency, greater flexibility, and lower cost,” Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, pointed out earlier this year.

EU research is both exploring potential cloud applications and breaking down the barriers to this development. The European Cloud Partnership, announced by Commissioner Kroes in January and aimed at supporting cloud adoption in Europe, is expected to start producing results over the coming months following initial funding of €10 million from the European Commission. Meanwhile, the Commission is also putting the finishing touches to a European Cloud Strategy following a thought-provoking Cloud Workshop held in June during the Digital Agenda Assembly in Brussels.

As Commissioner Kroes has noted, “2013 is the year when the cloud grows up. Let's be ready.”

The projects featured in this article have been supported by the Sixth or Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research.

Source: European Commission, Digital Agenda for Europe, Newsroom