17–19 Mar 2026
University of Oslo
Europe/Zurich timezone

EFSS as Infrastructure: Foundational Layer of Europe’s Sovereign Data Stack

17 Mar 2026, 10:30
20m
Gamle Festsal (University of Oslo)

Gamle Festsal

University of Oslo

Karl Johans gate 47
EFSS and storage federations for EOSC and eResearch infrastructures. Digital Sovereignty

Speaker

Mr Peter Szegedi (European Commission)

Description

Europe’s ambition for digital sovereignty is no longer an abstract policy goal. It is being operationalized through concrete, interoperable infrastructures that span research, data, compute and AI. This keynote situates the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) within its broader European Commission policy context and shows how Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) is evolving from a productivity service into a critical, shared digital infrastructure. A particular focus will be placed on SIMPL as open-source middleware enabling secure, scalable data and AI pipelines, and on the growing integration of EOSC with EuroHPC and AI Factories. Within this landscape, EFSS - exemplified by the EOSC EU Node and its evolution towards the EOSC Federation - emerges as a common, always-available layer for data access, collaboration and automation across Europe.

A central enabler of this transformation is Open Cloud Mesh (OCM). Originating in the CS3 community and now progressing through standardization in the IETF, OCM provides a vendor-neutral, policy-aware interoperability layer for federated file sharing. Its recognition within EOSC positions OCM as a practical pathway into SIMPL, European Data Spaces and, more broadly, Europe’s sovereign middleware stack. The keynote situates these developments within the European Commission policy landscape and their alignment with EOSC, SIMPL, Destination Earth and EuroHPC-enabled AI workflows. It argues that EFSS, powered by open standards such as OCM, is becoming a critical connective layer between data, compute and AI—turning federation from a policy aspiration into an operational reality.

Suggested Contribution Type Regular Talk (15-30 min)

Author

Mr Peter Szegedi (European Commission)

Presentation materials

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