BEST EUROPEAN CLOUD SERVICES AWARDED IN EuroCloud EUROPE FORUM 2015

During the sixth annual EuroCloud Europe Forum from Barcelona, EuroCloud Award 2015 gala was the special moment of announcement of best European Cloud services. Participants representing various players, policy making organization, professional communities, and academic research from all Europe had meet in Barcelona to discuss the latest Cloud technology and policy trends and to recognize Europe’s best Cloud services.

What are the trends discussed this year? It was clear Cloud computing become a more and more driver engine for developing of Europe’s digital economy. According to the results of a recent Survey commissioned by the European Commission about the reasons for interacting with research and innovation, Cloud computing industry could create until 2020 more than one million new jobs in Europe, adding a cumulative total of €449bn to the European GDP.

Having as flag motto „It’s all about Europe’s future with Cloud”, the EuroCloud Forum 2015 Agenda included a wide range of Cloud-related topics, from Cloud adoption, Cloud security, data protection, Cloud standards and certification, Cloud in the European science, or Cloud for European startups and innovation. The conference concluded with a concertation session and will generate a set of recommendations on the role of Cloud according the recently announced European Digital Single Market action plan.

EC Forum-news-01 Other certitude of this year Forum the Cloud is becoming the platform for development and provision of innovation throughout many European sectors and industries. The EuroCloud Awards serve to showcase many of these innovations and recognize the winners among the best Cloud services coming from all European countries.

Like last year, over 50 Cloud services providers from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, had runned in EuroCloud Europe Awards 2015 competition.

And the winners are:

Best Cloud Service for Horizontal Markets – Plattform.sh from Commerce Guys, France.
Best Cloud Service for Vertical Markets – Champ Hybrid Logistic Cloud from Champ CargoSystems, Luxembourg.
Best Cloud Service provided by Start-up Cloud Service Providers – SkyIdentity from Ecsec Gmbh, Germany.
Best Cloud Transformation Methods – Swiss Cloud Computing from Swiss Cloud Computing AG, Switzerland.
Best Business Impact provided by Cloud Services – business case provided by ALSTOM/ Simplicite Software, France.

Let’s see some brief descriptions of each contest category and associated awarded Cloud services:

Best Cloud Service for horizontal markets – Among the specific characteristics considered by EuroCloud Jury for this category are the ability of horizontal cloud services to fulfill best requirements for achieving wide market acceptance, provided functionality offered through strong connectivity and interopperability, and effective use of data center resources. More that the provided services need to comply with the data security and data privacy requirements in relation to customer data sensitivity and compliance.

The winner in Best Cloud Service for Horizontal Market category is Plattform.sh from Commerce Guys, France. Platform.sh was built for a buzzing web development process and blazing fast production run-time. No system administration chores and projects start faster, and get delivered earlier. The Platform.sh architecture provides enhanced stability and scalability by decoupling dependencies between system components, while code-based configuration and read-only architecture mean that many common attack vectors are simply not available. The main result is: all production sites developed on Platform.sh are fast, secure and resilient.

Best Cloud Service for vertical markets – Here the specific characteristics usually considered are the ability to fulfill the specific requirements of a particular branch or market sector (e.g. Logistics, Public Sector, Agriculture, Chemical Industries, Manufacturing etc.) while fulfilling best requirements for achieving wide market acceptance. Further, the provided functionality offered through strong connectivity and interoperability and a particularly effective use of required data center resources. Same requirements relating data security and data privacy are mandatory.

Champ Hybrid Logistic Cloud awarded as Best Cloud Services for Vertical Market is a complex infrastructure platform offered by Champ Cargosystems from Luxembourg which is providing a comprehensive range of integrated IT solutions and distribution services for all players in the air cargo transport chain, being appreciated for business-critical content and best of class, reliable connectivity. Hybrid Cloud services is a mix of in-house data centers and global cloud providers assigned to distribute Champ logistic services to 80 airlines and more than 300 handling facilities operated in over 180 countries.

Best Cloud Services provided by Start-Up Cloud Service Providers – For this category
the main condition is to be a three years or younger, but start-up have to distinguishing themselves with innovative and future-oriented cloud services. A particular focus is given to the originality and creativity of the solution. Among the specific characteristics are the customer benefits enabled by the service, and the scalability to fit customer’s requirements. A good competitive advantage could be the Go-To-Market strategy and the company growth rate.

SkyIdentity from German company Ecsec Gmbh, was established as winner in Best Cloud Service provided by Start-up Cloud Service Providers. SkIDentity-Service – is developed within the „Trusted Cloud“ Program supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). The goal of the SkIDentity project is to build a stable bridge between electronic identity cards (eID) and the existing and emerging cloud computing infrastructures. Based on the results of the project it is possible to provide trusted identities for the cloud and secure complete business processes and value chains. For this purpose the existing components, services and trust infrastructures are integrated into a comprehensive, legally valid and economically viable identity infrastructure for the cloud and tested in broadly effective pilot projects. Special attention is given to the demands of small and medium enterprises and authorities. For example the SkIDentity infrastructure will contain an eID-Broker, which will bundle the necessary eID-Services in a form which is accessible even for very small companies and municipal authorities.

Best Cloud Transformation Methods – this is a special category for consultancy companies which provides first class services to support customer transformation and migration processes towards the utilization of Cloud services. This challenging goal shall be achieved by proven methodologies and tools and shall ensure compliance conformity and a proper handling of potential business impacts for the customer. Expertly and punctual execution of the consulting service could also be taken into account.

Swiss Cloud Computing from Swiss Cloud Computing AG, Switzerland winner in Best Cloud Transformation Methods categories is a complete and comprehensive platform offering wide range of Cloud migrated services, from myDesktop – The virtual workplace from the cloud, my Aps – SME business software from the cloud, and myServer – Computing power from the cloud via Self-Service, until myMail – professional Mail server, myFILESHARE, and MyBackup – Data Back up in the cloud:

Best Business Impact provided by Cloud Services  - This is a customer dedicated category which is searching successfully deployed cloud services projects and evident user-benefits achieved in various ways, higher productivity, processes increasing speed, achieved competitive advantage or an estimated percentage of ROI.

Winning story case in this category is business case provided by ALSTOM/ Simplicite Software, France. Simplicité is a universal aPaaS (application PaaS) designed to create custom strategic enterprise applications or reliable & scalable SaaS services. Whatever of business specific, Simplicité solution simplifies every steps of client’s application’s lifecycle in compliance with DevOps principles: business-oriented design, model-driven build, flexible usage, robust operation. Client is free to choose preferred cloud infrastructure provider (either public/private IaaS or PaaS like CloudFoundry). Simplicité is also available for on-premise hosting, and the client ranges from private and public large accounts to small and medium businesses. Selected case is presenting the benefits of Alstom, a key account coming from energy and transport global manufacturing sector.

As mentioned in previous articles in his consecutive 3^rd years participation Romania was present in the international final of EuroCloud Award 2015 with Cloud solution “Elefin the Cash Therapy App” provided by Romanian company Elefin, winner in the national EuroCloud Award contest at “Best Cloud Service provided by Start-up Cloud Service Providers”.