The eco – Association of the Internet Industry is managing the newly launched FACIS project as part of the European infrastructure initiative IPCEI-CIS/8ra. FACIS stands for Federation Architecture for Composed Infrastructure Services and has been funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) with around €6.8 million since November 2024, for a duration of two years. The project is now gaining momentum with the first workshop for service providers, where the framework for common service level agreements (SLAs) is being developed. The eco Association plays a key role in establishing the organisational framework, integrating relevant stakeholders and the European infrastructure community into the project. The technical implementation, divided into four work packages, will be put out to public tender.
“FACIS and 8ra will make it significantly easier for organisations and providers in Europe to drive innovation forward – more important than ever given the current global political situation,” says eco Managing Director Andreas Weiss, who is responsible for political and economic engagement in the FACIS project. “By developing a seamless network of cloud and edge providers, we are laying the groundwork for applications such as autonomous driving -ensuring safe and uninterrupted cross-border mobility. The creation of federated, interoperable digital ecosystems will accelerate this process and enable close collaboration.”
Strengthening Europe’s digital future
As conventional cloud solutions often fail to deliver the tailored services that modern applications and use cases require, FACIS directly addresses this challenge. The goal is to develop a federated, consumer-centric, and scalable infrastructure that meets the specific requirements of cross-border cloud-edge environments – both from a technical perspective and in terms of international governance structures.
To achieve this, FACIS leverages technologies such as Federation Architecture Patterns (FAPs), machine-readable SLAs, and low-code orchestration platforms, ensuring that multi-provider infrastructures operate as a cohesive, scalable, and secure ecosystem. Open-source innovation and robust governance frameworks support these solutions, promoting transparency and collaboration across Europe’s cloud-edge landscape.
For more information about FACIS, please visit www.facis.eu .
Bildquelle: iStock/Passakorn Prothien
