Earlier this year, ten of Europe’s leading public research organisations with co-funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme - launched the Helix Nebula Science Cloud (HNSciCloud) Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP). The four successful consortia were announced on November 2nd, in Lyon during the award ceremony hosted by CC-IN2P3 (CNRS), one of the main academic data centres in France and a procurer of HNSciCloud. The ceremony was followed by around 80 participants, and the representatives of the four winning consortia presented their vision and approaches for the design of the hybrid cloud platform.

21 July 2016

Today Helix Nebula - The Science Cloud (HNSciCloud) launched a €5.3 million tender for the establishment of a European hybrid cloud platform. The purpose of the platform is to support the deployment of high-performance computing and big-data capabilities for scientific research.

This document is not simply a ‘how to’ guide. Rather, its purpose is to act as a checklist for all those involved in procurement of cloud services including problem-owners (customers), operational staff, contract advisors and solutions providers (suppliers) to establish the extent to which their procurement practices are fit for cloud procurement.

Digital transformation is absolutely crucial to any organisation whether public or private. It is at the very core of the digital single market to ensure Europe reaps the socio-economic benefits of new technologies. Cloud computing has the potential to reduce IT expenditure and boost organisational agility while at the same time improving the scope for delivering flexible high-quality new services.