Telco Cloud Reference Architecture: A Milestone for Europe's Digital Sovereignty
6, March, 2025
March 3, 2025 – The EU Cloud Alliance has released the Telco Cloud Reference Architecture (TCRA), a key framework, requested by the European Commission, shaping the future of Europe’s telecom cloud ecosystem. This major step forward aligns with the objectives of CISERO (Cloud Infrastructure and Services Exploitation Resources Office), an initiative to support IPCEI-CIS, dedicated to fostering interoperability, security, and digital sovereignty across Europe’s cloud and edge infrastructure.
The TCRA offers an effective paradigm for federated telecom cloud environments, including important topics like security, AI-driven cloud-edge interaction, and multi-cloud interoperability. It paves the way for a more intelligent and interconnected digital infrastructure by outlining the fundamental components of a telecom cloud that is scalable and resilient.
The initiative behind the framework, the EU Cloud Alliance,which is an advisory organisation, composed of leading European research organisations, cloud providers, and telecom operators, plays a pivotal role in driving federated cloud architectures and secure cloud-edge collaboration. The TCRA reflects this mission by establishing a reference model that ensures seamless integration across diverse telecom and cloud ecosystems.
A Federated and AI-Ready Cloud-Edge Future
The TCRA builds on previous EU initiatives, including the Telco Cloud Thematic Roadmap and the €3B IPCEI Cloud initiative, which seek to enhance Europe's cloud-edge capabilities. It also benefits from contributions by key industry and open source projects and technological solutions offered by entities such as OpenNebula, ETSI NFV, Open Source Mano, Sylva, and Camara.
With AI, 5G, and other future innovations requiring cloud infrastructures that are more secure, scalable, and flexible, the TCRA ensures that Europe's telecom networks have the capacity to take on these challenges. It offers a methodical approach to federation, integration, and interoperability, enabling telecom and cloud players to work together productively in a competitive, open, and sovereign digital environment.
Next Steps
Even though the TCRA's release represents a major milestone, further work will be needed to improve the federation, integration, and exposure designs in order to support next-generation telecom services. In order to create a genuinely European, federated, and independent cloud ecosystem, CISERO strives further to encourage cooperation between industry and research partners through the support of the IPCEI-CIS Community.