Open, sovereign cloud edge architectures in Europe: The contribution of the 8ra initiative to dig...

Europe faces the challenge of achieving digital sovereignty and innovation across a fragmented cloud landscape. The 8ra Initiative (IPCEI-CIS) is a pan-European, industry-driven response: it focuses on building a Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum (MPCEC), based on openness, interoperability, and resilience. With more than 120 partners across 12 member states, 8ra aims to create a European alternative to closed hyperscaler models - embedding Open Source as a guiding principle for governance and technology. By building the necessary components for a so called Multi-Provider-Cloud-Edge-Continuum stack, organizations will no longer be tied to a single provider and can run cloud-native applications wherever they choose. The developed open source components support, that data can be processed locally where it is produced, reducing latency, environmental burden, and data transfer costs by combining cloud and edge resources from multiple sovereign providers. Only an open source development w