On Monday 19 July, the European Commission launched its ‘European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud’.
The Alliance – launched in parallel with the European ‘Alliance for Processors and Semiconductor technologies’ (see other news) – should enable the European Union, by means of collaborating with other companies, Member State representatives, universities and users,to deploy cloud and high-performance computing infrastructures and services.
“Cloud and edge technologies present a tremendous economic potential for citizens, businesses and public administrations, for example in terms of increased competitiveness and meeting industry-specific needs”, said Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager.
Today, about 20% of data necessitates the use of high-performance IT and computing. The EU estimates that this will affect 80% of data by 2025.
“The Alliance on cloud and edge aims at developing energy-efficient and highly secured European industrial clouds, which are not subject to control or access by third country authorities”, said the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
Entities who wish to take part in the Alliance will have to meet a number of criteria in light of the sensitivity of this area, including having at least one legal representative present in the EU. The Commission will assess each application in detail.
This Alliance is part of the ‘European Data Strategy’ and should contribute to the objectives of the ‘Digital Compass’ for 2030 (see EUROPE 12746/28).
Its creation has been endorsed following conclusions adopted by the European Council on digital issues on 1 and 2 October 2020 (https://bit.ly/3rj2ETV ) and by the declaration on the European Cloud, signed by the Member States on 15 October.
The Alliance will benefit from funding from the Digital Europe programme, the European Defence Fund and also the Connecting Europe Facility. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)