“Scale up, make technology usable!”

Giovanni Frattini on how a federated, European infrastructure can make complexity manageable

As Technical Manager at Engineering Group, and member of the 8ra Facilitation Group, Giovanni Frattini argues that Europe needs a federated model to scale digital transformation – and a cooperative path to European sovereignty.

August 2025

In Conversation with Giovanni Frattini, Technical Manager, Engineering Group

In this interview, Giovanni Frattini from the AVANT project, shares his vision for the future of digital infrastructure in Europe. He argues that the next wave of digital transformation must be scalable and usable, and that a federated model is designed to achieve this. By building a “toolbox” of interoperable solutions, the project aims to empower smaller businesses, ensure genuine market competition, and ultimately help to secure Europe’s capacity to act independently in the digital age.

The key, he believes, is to stop trying to compete head-on with global tech giants on their own terms, and instead leverage.

Engineering plays a central role in the AVANT project – an ambitious effort to create interoperable and intelligent secure middleware. What drew you to the 8ra Initiative, and what is your specific focus within the project?

“Our involvement in AVANT stems from an in-depth analysis of Europe’s data landscape and future expectations. There has long been anticipation of a surge in data moving to the edge, with projections suggesting that 80% of data will be processed outside traditional data centres. Although this shift is yet to materialise, we believe that the Digital Decade will accelerate it, fundamentally transforming how data is handled. Now, it may seem strange, but it’s not always clear, what ‘edge’ really means. For us, it’s about providing services that respond within a millisecond while taking advantage of the large amount of data produced near the user.

At the core, AVANT is developing an intelligent middleware designed to support digital twins and other data-intensive applications across the Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum.”

What’s your strategic approach to driving digital innovation?

“Look, historically, the most successful companies – think about Google’s early, simple search page – didn’t just innovate, they made complex stuff usable and scalable. Simplicity is genius. Right now, digital transformation is often ‘ad-hoc’, costing a ton in custom work. That’s unsustainable.

The main goal is to fix that and simplify how we use distributed edge data. If you’re stuck in ‘one edge, one cloud’ scenarios, it may seem easier. But to really leverage data spaces – like combining data from Germany and Italy – that’s where it gets hard. We have to put together the different pieces of this puzzle for really making infrastructure and data work together. So I say:

What sets your approach apart?

“Our solution boils down to three key areas within AVANT, centred around creating a digital twin operating system. Last time I checked there were 700 different IoT platforms worldwide. There are possibly even more now, all speaking different data ‘languages’, which makes it incredibly complex to derive real value. We make complex data usable, we tackle fragmented digital transformation and we have a unique approach to vertical markets.

Rather than building siloed platforms for specific industries, we are creating a layered architecture aimed to provide essential tools for building Digital twins and, more general for supporting companies in their digital transformations. This enables us to accelerate the development of tailored solutions for a wide range of needs, from detailed 3D visualisation for cultural heritage to ultra-low latency control for industrial lines. Our aim is to deliver effective, real-world results by providing a foundation that can be adapted to diverse requirements.”

Given all these diverse applications that AVANT is covering, is there one use case that stands out to you personally, or that you’re the most excited about?

“Good question. We’re active across five distinct sectors: industry, cultural heritage, public services, energy, and health. Our goal is to release most of our code as open source to encourage wider adoption.

My personal favourite is cultural heritage. Reconstructing the Brandenburg Gate in 3D shows how drone imagery and edge computing meet. What’s fascinating is how technology can be transferred. The same principles that we use for monuments could help autonomous cars scan roads and recognise guardrails as solid objects.”

Considering the global focus on sustainability and energy efficiency, how does your project address the energy footprint of its cloud and edge technologies?

“When it comes to energy efficiency, the solution lies in working at the hardware level. However, our approach tackles this from the software side by optimising the use of hardware. We model energy consumption across data centres and shift workloads accordingly. Unfortunately, today pricing rarely rewards efficiency – something policy and market design could change.”

What makes a federated multi provider model like 8ra a better fit for Europe sovereignty goals than a centralised cloud platform?

“That’s the core of the matter. A federated model is a natural fit for Europe because our reality is distributed. The surge in data at the edge that we discussed is generated at the local edge, so it makes sense to have infrastructure that is distributed rather than centralised. This pragmatic approach acknowledges our economic and geographical landscape.

This isn’t just a defensive move, it’s a significant opportunity. While a centralised model might be easier to build, it leaves Europe vulnerable to market dominance. If we don’t create alternatives, we risk ending up with a market where a few major players can dictate prices, which could be dangerous for European industry. Our model ensures genuine competition and provides real choice.

And let me be clear: this isn’t a strategy against anyone. It’s a strategy for Europe.”

What is – in your perspective – the main goal of 8ra?

“It is leveraging Europe’s unique strength: a vibrant ecosystem of distributed cloud service providers. These smaller, often specialised cloud solution providers (CSPs) are already spread across the continent, serving the diverse needs of SMEs and niche industries.

Our goal is to empower these entities by bringing them together to form a powerful, sovereign European infrastructure. We believe it’s essential to enable these smaller economic entities to ‘join forces’, to cooperate and compete simultaneously.”

Looking ahead: Building a sovereign and scalable digital infrastructure

Giovanni’s perspective reflects the core ambition of the AVANT project and the 8ra Initiative: to create an infrastructure that is not just technically advanced, but fundamentally smarter and more usable. His emphasis on making digital transformation scalable align directly with the mission to build a federated, Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum.

This strategy demonstrates how Europe can build its own strength by empowering a distributed network of providers. It offers a concrete example of how a collaborative, pragmatic approach can provide genuine alternatives in the market and ensure true competition – this becomes essential for shaping Europe’ digital resilience and securing its capacity to act independently in the future.