Today, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology announced the start of funding for a first sub-project of the EU programme “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 European joint project IPCEI-CIS is an important impulse for industrial policy and marks the transition from discussion to concrete action. Now, however, all other sub-projects must be implemented quickly. It is crucial that we succeed in better networking the decentralised and regionally distributed providers of cloud and edge solutions in Europe and in advancing open and inclusive standards.

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