Federal government gives go-ahead for European cloud project  

• Start of funding for first sub-project in the EU program IPCEI-CIS
• Berg: "Decisive contribution to stronger European digital sovereignty".

Today, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology announced the start of funding for a first sub-project of the EU program "IPCEI-CIS", which aims to strengthen cloud and edge computing capacities in the EU. Bitkom President Achim Berg explains:

"Cloud and edge computing are the basis for future technologies such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Today's start of funding for the joint European IPCEI-CIS project is an important impetus for industrial policy and marks the transition from discussion to concrete action. Now, however, all the other subprojects must be implemented quickly. It is crucial that we succeed in better networking the decentralized and regionally distributed providers of cloud and edge solutions in Europe and in advancing open and inclusive standards.

Decentralized data processing is advantageous or indispensable for many applications, such as autonomous driving, data analysis in production or the decentralization of the energy system. The major international cloud providers have long since identified the edge computing required for this as an important future field and have developed corresponding offerings. A joint response by all EU member states across national and corporate borders is therefore also a decisive contribution to stronger European digital sovereignty. German and European business, and industry in particular, need high-performance, secure and trustworthy technologies and offerings in the areas of cloud, edge and data. IPCEI-CIS, but also Gaia-X and related projects, make a strategically important contribution here."