The 8ra Initiative was a key topic at the CCX Cloud Computing Conference, 4 to 5 November 2025 in Frankfurt am Main, sparking extensive discussion on building a sovereign digital future for Europe.
The event began with a compelling presentation by Johann Schmidt and Florian Denzin, DLR Projektträger, on the 8ra Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum. They outlined its opportunities as a common European digital infrastructure, showing that the initiative is moving from vision to reality. First deliveries by project partners, such as the common reference architecture, showed concrete steps towards implementation. This inspired significant interest, especially in relation to sovereign cloud solutions for German and European SMEs.
This momentum carried through to a lively panel discussion on the reality of digital independence: “”.
During the engaging debate on cloud sovereignty, Andreas Schlosser represented SAP’s vision of the 8ra Initiative as manifested in the AperiroRA project. The panel, which also touched upon the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework, emphasized the need to be practical. Crucially, the importance of use case alignment was a key takeaway, underscoring the initiative’s focus on delivering functional solutions for Europe’s future.