The European Cloud Computing Hub to grow a sustainable and comprehensive ecosystem

Project Information

HUB4CLOUD

Grant agreement ID: 101016673

DOI

10.3030/101016673

Project closed

EC signature date 11 November 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 599 500,00

EU contribution

€ 599 500,00

Coordinated by

MARTEL GMBH
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HUB4CLOUD (The European Cloud Computing Hub to grow a sustainable and comprehensive ecosystem)

Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

HUB4CLOUD is a Coordination & Support Action within the Horizon Cloud initiative which lasted 21 months and reached the following objectives:

Objective 1 focused on the following activities:
1.a) Support initiatives on secure, environmentally sustainable, interoperable and scalable CC technologies and solutions enabling the European data strategy ambition to be met, with the new Industrial strategy for Europe to be adequately grounded and thereby implemented. Overcome effort fragmentation and catalyse complementary cooperation work
1.b) Facilitate interactions among the best CC researchers and innovators in Europe, to align on a solid research and innovation agenda. Manage player diversity, related initiatives, potential interests, and the transition from H2020 to Horizon Europe, guiding strategic roadmapping and policy recommendation making by adopting agile coordination mechanisms

Objective 2 focused on the following activities:
2.a) Engage stakeholders, facilitate participation for newcomers, foster knowledge exchange, organise dedicated events, while promoting main achievements via targeted dissemination and outreach efforts, to foster concrete value creation for all community members
2.b) Interact with, collaborate, and then take over the ongoing communication activities (expert groups, online forum, events, document library) from the ongoing H-CLOUD CSA project, to move forward towards a full sustainability of the Horizon Cloud brand and programme

Objective 3 focused on the following activities:
3.a) Facilitate technology transfer and know-how exchange, mapping ECC projects’ efforts into open source, pre-standardisation and standardisation activities. Identify and propose innovative business model patterns that can guide business practitioners, especially SMEs and entrepreneurs, by examining the identified best practices and success stories out of ECC projects
3.b) Analyse what are the most pressing needs in terms of cloud computing skills development in Europe, while collaborating with the ECC projects and related initiatives to identify and promote training materials and programmes, as well as educational, skilling and/or upskilling opportunities

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

HUB4CLOUD Work Package 1: This work package measures the impact of cloud computing research projects in terms of innovation, business development or stakeholders’ engagement among other factors. Three main activities have been carried out during this period.1) The continuation of the work with the coordination board in order to coordinate synergies between different projects to identify future challenges within the cloud computing roadmap. 2) Identifying success stories as patterns to be applied in future projects for impact of European research projects both in industry and society maximisation. A set of recommendations was also provided in order to support others to avoid them as properly documented in D1.2 and concluded in D1.3. 3) Mapping efforts and initiatives on different topics in the cloud computing arena with the main aim of identifying valuable contributions to the European Cloud Computing Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and influencing the future roadmap. Conclusions from 2022 are presented as policy recommendations and documented in D1.5 updated in D1.6.

HUB4CLOUD Work Package 2: This work package focussed on the community building, communication and dissemination activities conducted during the course of the project. The focus of activities varied in the different phases of this Work Package.
Phase 1 (M1-M6): Onboarding the RIAs into the community, giving them visibility, supporting H-CLOUD in different activities and laying ground for HUB4CLOUD’s own activities (events, surveys, interviews).
Phase 2 (M7-M12): Execution phase: most of the big events were organised during this phase. It was also a phase which acted as a data gathering phase.
Phase 3 (M12-M21): Echoing the news about project results and activties via multiple channels. During this phase, activities and events were also taking place as well as dissemination of the results.

HUB4CLOUD Work Package 3: This work package conducted three parallel activities to determine what is needed within the cloud computing ecosystem in order to receive a boost that will make it stand out in the short, medium and long term. 1) Identifying the different R&D challenges that need to be addressed to reach maturity of these technologies. These activities have been ranked, prioritised and cross-checked through public consultations to produce a roadmap. 2) Determining the market demand, for which a prospective was carried out, resulting in business model patterns that are recommendations that the industry can follow in order to obtain benefits from the implementation of Cloud Computing. 3) Research was carried out on the availability of the necessary skills in the industry for the implementation of their cloud migration strategies. It was also analysed how this gap is currently being filled depending on the typology of the companies.

HUB4CLOUD Work Package 4 and 5: In this work package all the activities related to project management were conducted including the monitoring and reporting of the financials and the organisation of operative meetings with all the relevant project participants.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

HUB4CLOUD generate the following impact on the European Cloud Computing community (ECC):

- Changes in the ecosystem - difference in terms of its composition, its organisation, and its relevance.
HUB4CLOUD started with a careful analysis of the ECC current composition with the ambition to keep the insiders committed while engaging newcomers, especially smaller players but also public organisations, researchers, industry, regulators, etc. so as to close the various existing gaps and avoid fragmentation of efforts.

- Changes in the stakeholders - difference in terms of behaviour, relationships, and performance.
HUB4CLOUD acted as a catalyst for building critical mass and accelerating innovation cycles as needed by both internal and external stakeholders for the further research, development, validation and deployment of next generation CC technologies and solutions.

- Changes in the broader context:
HUB4CLOUD managed to effectively promote and help coordinate European research, innovation and policy efforts both strategically and operationally, which has been producing impact at scientific, economic, regulatory and environmental level. This on the long term will boost global competitiveness and technological sovereignty, helping to build viable alternative to the predominance of US and Chinese market players, while creating better conditions for small players that are the backbone of the European economy.

- Engage and support all ongoing H2020 cloud-related projects as major internal stakeholders comprising partners involved in the projects, but possibly also their networks and communities.
HUB4CLOUD nurtured regular interactions with the Strategic Coordination Board (SCB) and exploited the common mission and complementarity of planned activities with the sister project H-CLOUD CSA so as to avoid duplication of efforts, while strengthening and extending the outreach.

-Reach out to and involve external stakeholders bridging with relevant communities, clusters, associations, industry-led and standardisation bodies, etc. to help grow the ECC ecosystem in terms of impact, relevance and size.

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