Cloud for Europe
As one of the project partners of Cloud for Europe, the BRZ organized the project’s final workshop. This EU initiative aims to promote the use of cloud services in the public sector. Although we were confronted with a number of huge challenges the project was completed successfully.
The aim of the Cloud for Europe research project was to create trust in European cloud computing among public authorities of EU member states. The project tried to demonstrate potential applications using various application scenarios of cloud solutions. The needs of the public sector were identified and central services were studied.
Cloud for Europe was combined with the Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) model which is also intended to promote innovation. Pre-commercial procurement is an unbureaucratic, flexible – and hence very attractive – instrument; companies take part in competitions in which they develop new ideas and innovative solutions for the public sector. PCP thus creates a win-win situation for the business community and the public sector.
Various technically sophisticated solutions were presented in the workshop with 40 participants from 10 European countries. The following services were explored:
- Federated Certified Services Brokerage for EU Public Administration Cloud
- Secure, Legislation – Aware Storage
- Legislation Execution Cloud Services
The BRZ as an active partner
Manoela Bodiroza and Carl-Markus Piswanger had been involved in the project on behalf of the BRZ since its kick-off in 2013. Mr. Piswanger is convinced that Cloud for Europe was a very important European initiative: “The BRZ was able to share its long-standing IT know-how in the public sector.”
Ms, Bodiroza adds: “Working together with 24 partners from eleven states across borders on a single solution for all was sometimes challenging – for all of us. But in the end we succeeded in creating a good basis for the establishment of cloud services for administrative purposes.”
Cross-border cooperation
The EU project Cloud for Europe, which was completed at the end of June, had been subsidized as part of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP7) of the European Commission and wasvsupported by 24 partners from eleven European countries. The Austrian project partners were the Federal Computing Center (BRZ), the Austrian Center for Secure Information Technology (A-SIT), and Graz University of Technology.