An increasing number of universities and research organizations are adopting cloud technology: as a first step, thanks to frameworks like OCRE, eligible R&E institutions across Europe can tap into pre-tendered, compliant cloud services without the typical procurement complexities. The second fundamental step is turning cloud access into a working, secure, production-ready environment. A new partnership between Sparkle and Xebia focuses exactly on that.
Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the world’s top global operators, holds the highest-ranked position for Amazon Web Services (AWS) under the OCRE 2024 Framework – the cloud procurement framework managed by GÉANT that gives eligible institutions in 39 countries streamlined access to cloud services. That ranking has made Sparkle a natural point of entry for R&E organizations looking to move onto AWS offer.
To complement its proposal, Sparkle partners with Xebia, a global AI-first digital transformation and engineering company based in the Netherlands. Xebia brings deep expertise across cloud strategy and architecture, compliant landing zones, AI and machine learning, high-performance computing (HPC), data platforms, and managed cloud services. Together, the two companies provide R&E institutions with a single, joined-up path: from framework access, through architecture and compliance, to a working AWS environment that can support real research and teaching workloads.
The agreement covers nine countries – Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom – where Sparkle and Xebia can jointly support eligible institutions in their cloud transformation journeys. For universities and research centres in these countries already working within the OCRE framework, it means an easier route to service implementation, whether that’s setting up a compliant landing zone, standing up AI and machine learning use cases, modernizing research infrastructure, or supporting HPC workloads.
According to Annalisa Bonatti, Vice President Enterprise at Sparkle: “We are committed to helping the European research and education community access cloud services through a secure, compliant, and cost-effective model, and pleased to partner with Xebia to help institutions transform cloud access into tangible outcomes”.
The partnership was unveiled in June during TNC26, the largest gathering of its kind for the European R&E networking community, hosted this year in Helsinki by CSC, the National Research and Education Network of Finland. Besides opening a door to the cloud, the OCRE framework – once that door is open – can be a one-stop-shop for organisations to access the relevant toolset and services.
Institutions interested in learning more about Sparkle’s offer for the European R&E community can find further details on Sparkle’s dedicated R&E website.
