On Monday, 24 November 2025, eco – Association of the Internet Industry hosted the FACIS event “Next-Generation SLA Management | Playbook & Taxonomy” in Berlin. Experts from industry, research and public authorities came together to discuss how a common and transparent approach to Service Level Agreement (SLA) governance can strengthen a sovereign, open and resilient European digital infrastructure.
Within the framework of the 8ra Initiative, the FACIS project plays a central role in addressing one of the key enablers of a federated cloud ecosystem: trust and accountability across multiple providers. FACIS is developing the first common European framework for multi-provider SLA management, based on standards, harmonised metrics and a modular structure. This framework complements the technical foundations of the Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum by providing a shared governance layer that simplifies collaboration, comparability and compliance across providers.
The event opened with a keynote by Markus Heß, Deputy Director General for Industrial Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. He highlighted the strategic importance of the 8ra Initiative for reinforcing Europe’s digital sovereignty and underlined the need for coordinated governance approaches to support interoperable and trustworthy digital infrastructures.
A first panel discussion examined the broader digital challenges facing the European economy, with contributions from:
- Ernst Stöckl-Pukall (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, BMWE)
- Dr. jur. Christina Schmidt-Holtmann (Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, BMDV)
- Alexander Rabe (eco – Association of the Internet Industry)
- Susanne Dehmel (Bitkom e.V.)
The discussion highlighted that a competitive and sovereign European cloud ecosystem requires not only technical interoperability, but also clear and harmonised rules for service quality, responsibility and transparency.
In a second panel, concrete project perspectives illustrated how these principles are being applied in practice across the 8ra ecosystem. Insights were shared by:
- Mike Cosse, Co-Lead of the 8ra project ApeiroRA (SAP)
- Wolfgang Fischer, Project Lead of the 8ra project CUBE-C – Cyber-Physical Systems Cloud Continuum (Bosch)
- Axel Stahlhut, Senior Lead Project Management, 8ra project RESCUE (Amadeus)
- Oliver Nyderle, 8ra project EdgeConnect (Deutsche Telekom)
- Frederik Tengg, Release Manager, Gaia-X
Across both panels, a shared conclusion emerged: a sovereign cloud ecosystem depends on robust, transparent and harmonised SLA governance to enable effective collaboration within the Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum and to build trust across organisational and national boundaries.
Explore the FACIS SLA Governance Playbook & Taxonomy !