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Multi-cloud Studio is potential to do the same in the cloud computing services competition as the mobile number portability did for mobile operator competition a decade ago.

The benefits of cloud computing are numerous, as delivering computing services over the internet brings an agile, measurable, on-demand, self-service that enables broad network access and resource pooling. While providing all these benefits, cloud computing can also bring its challenges such as vendor lock-in, service outages and a centralised service ecosystem. The new EIT Digital Multi-Cloud Studio Innovation Activity will tackle these by providing a unified platform and a single interface for managing and moving swiftly between various multi-cloud providers’ computing resources.

Multi-Cloud Studio platform and service will significantly increase cloud computing service users’ IT cost-efficiency and enable them an easier and wider adoption of multi-cloud architectures, especially on hybrid clouds, which are expected to be the preferred enterprise strategy for digital transformation.

Philippe Merle, the leader of the Multi-Cloud Studio Innovation Activity, said:

“The Multi-Cloud Studio platform and service will respond the steadily growing cloud market demand by offering a unique studio for managing multi-cloud instances, and a runtime environment to allow it to transparently manage public, private, and hybrid multi-cloud systems. Our customers will be the cloud architects designing, deploying and monitoring cloud systems. Our goal is to launch Multi-Cloud Studio as a service for them in 2019.”

By using several cloud service platform providers simultaneously, it is possible to avoid vendor lock-in, achieve cost savings, become outage resilient and distribute an ecosystem’s geo-presence. With multiple cloud computing service providers, one is likely to face a number of issues. These include heterogeneity, interoperability, portability and management between the various cloud services one is using.

Philippe Merle continued: “Multi-Cloud Studio helps to provide a stable platform and a single interface based on Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) standard. Thanks to Multi-Cloud Studio’s cloud computing service provider specific models and integrators, our interface hides all the various cloud computing service providers behind it so that it is the same user experience throughout.”

During the first phase in 2018, the Multi-Cloud Studio will support the worldwide leading public and private cloud service providers – namely Amazon Web Services (AWS), VMware and the OpenStack technology - starting with VMware. In 2019 and beyond, a larger cloud portfolio strategy will be established to make the Multi-Cloud Studio work with more public/private cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Bluemix.

Background

Multi-Cloud Studio is one of EIT Digital’s 10 Digital Infrastructure Action Line Innovation Activities of 2018. The Digital Infrastructure Action Line focuses on enabling digital transformation by providing secure, robust, responsive, and intelligent communications and computation facilities for markets.

In addition to the Innovation Activity Leader, the French public research body dedicated to digital science and technology, Inria, the two other EIT Digital partners participating in the Multi-Cloud Studio Innovation Activity are the Italian Santer Reply, specialising in consulting, systems integration and digital services, and the French cloud operator and architect Scalair.

Inria will develop the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenStack models and connectors (aka functions), package Multi-Cloud Studio as a service and carry the role of Business Champion.

Santer Reply will be the customer for the AWS functions and integrate them with its own business tools. Scalair will be a customer for both AWS and OpenStack functions and integrate them into its own business tool. Before the market launch, Santer and Scalair will analyse the market needs and validate the developed technical components.

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