OpenNebula Systems and IONOS have validated a joint architecture for deploying private, hybrid, and distributed clouds on European infrastructure. The offering combines OpenNebula’s open source cloud management platform with IONOS’s bare metal servers and is part of the work under IPCEI-CIS, the European project aimed at developing an interoperable cloud-edge infrastructure with less reliance on proprietary platforms.
The OpenNebula-IONOS Alliance in 20 Seconds
- OpenNebula has certified a reference architecture for running its platform on IONOS bare metal.
- Data can be hosted in IONOS data centers within the European Union.
- The solution supports hosted private, hybrid, and distributed clouds.
- The design aims to reduce dependence on a single vendor.
- The architecture is aligned with the specifications of the European IPCEI-CIS program.
The collaboration turns part of the work OpenNebula and IONOS have long been doing around European digital sovereignty into a deployable offering. Both companies have taken part in initiatives tied to IPCEI-CIS and Virt8ra, where various European providers have tested the federation of cloud and edge resources.
The difference now is that an organization can use an OpenNebula-certified architecture running on IONOS infrastructure as a starting point for building its own hosted cloud, rather than limiting the project to experimental federation environments.
OpenNebula on IONOS Bare Metal Servers
The architecture combines two clearly distinct layers. IONOS supplies the physical resources, and OpenNebula provides the platform responsible for managing them as cloud infrastructure.
OpenNebula can run directly on bare metal servers, which means it can access physical resources without adding an extra virtualization layer between the platform and the hardware. That doesn’t mean downstream workloads necessarily have to run without virtualization: OpenNebula can manage virtual machines, containers, and Kubernetes.
The Spanish company presents this model as a way to combine the control associated with a dedicated server with the features typical of a cloud platform, such as provisioning, centralized administration, and management of different environments.
The certified architecture also covers different deployment models. A company can build a private cloud hosted on IONOS, connect external resources, or develop hybrid and distributed configurations.
That flexibility matters because cloud sovereignty doesn’t depend solely on the country where a data center is located.
Other factors also come into play, such as who controls the management layer, the ability to move workloads, the applicable jurisdiction, access to data, the technologies used, and the degree of technical and contractual dependence on a specific vendor.
Under the joint proposal, data can remain in IONOS data centers within the European Union, while OpenNebula provides a European, open source platform for managing the infrastructure.
OpenNebula also highlights the absence of dependence on any specific proprietary platform as one of the architecture’s selling points. Using open technologies can make portability easier, but it doesn’t automatically eliminate all the costs or difficulties associated with a migration. Applications, networking, storage, managed services, and specific architectures can still create technical dependencies.
From IPCEI-CIS to an Architecture Companies Can Deploy
The collaboration should be understood within a much broader European project.
The European Commission approved the Important Project of Common European Interest on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS) in December 2023, the first Important Project of Common European Interest dedicated specifically to the cloud and edge space.
The goal is to develop a European data-processing ecosystem that is open, interoperable, and capable of working across multiple providers, from large data centers to edge infrastructure.
The Commission authorized up to €1.2 billion in public funding, initially expected to mobilize a further €1.4 billion in private investment. Some later communications from the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem itself group the public and private funding tied to the program and its participants into figures above €3 billion. It’s worth distinguishing those references from the specific amounts set out in the Commission’s original decision.
OpenNebula is an active participant in this work and chairs IPCEI-CIS’s industrial facilitation group.
One of its most visible projects is Virt8ra, a federated cloud-edge infrastructure built on European technologies that has been used to test connecting resources provided by different operators.
In one of its phases, Virt8ra brought together resources from five European cloud service providers: Arsys, IONOS, OVHcloud, Scaleway, and Stackscale. The federated environment provided ten availability zones spread across eight countries.
The initiative pursues exactly one of the goals now showing up in the joint architecture with IONOS: allowing the management layer to be decoupled to a greater extent from the provider supplying the physical resources.
The approach also fits with IPCEI-CIS’s reference architecture, designed to establish common foundations on which to build federated cloud and edge infrastructures.
European Cloud Sovereignty Looks for Practical Alternatives
Europe has spent years trying to reduce certain technology dependencies, but the discussion around cloud sovereignty is gradually moving from political statements to concrete architectural decisions.
A company may want to keep its data within the EU while also needing virtualization, Kubernetes, automation, centralized management, and the ability to extend its infrastructure to other locations.
The combination of OpenNebula and IONOS tries to address that scenario without building an entirely new platform.
IONOS provides dedicated servers and European data centers. OpenNebula lays a common layer on top to manage the infrastructure and workloads. The certified architecture aims to reduce the work needed to validate that combination beforehand.
IONOS already publishes technical documentation for deploying OpenNebula on Linux servers. In conventional setups, an installation can use a front-end node for management and several servers running virtual machines through KVM. For production, the final design will depend on requirements such as redundancy, storage, networking, security, and availability.
The new offering goes beyond a basic installation and establishes a reference architecture validated specifically for combining both technologies in sovereign cloud scenarios.
It doesn’t mean IONOS and OpenNebula have created a European public cloud equivalent to the major hyperscalers. The offering is aimed more at organizations that want to build or host private infrastructure while keeping greater control over the technology layer and the location of their data.
That distinction matters. Digital sovereignty isn’t achieved simply by swapping the name of a U.S. provider for a European one. It requires examining where the data sits, what software controls the infrastructure, which jurisdictions are involved, and how far an organization can migrate its workloads if its needs change.
OpenNebula’s certified architecture on IONOS adds a new option to that market and brings part of the work developed around IPCEI-CIS into a scenario that European companies and public administrations can put to direct use.
Frequently Asked Questions
What have OpenNebula and IONOS announced?
The companies are offering an integrated, validated architecture that combines OpenNebula with IONOS bare metal infrastructure to deploy private, hybrid, and distributed clouds in Europe.
Where is the data stored?
The offering allows data to be hosted in IONOS data centers located within the European Union. The infrastructure is managed using OpenNebula’s open source technology.
How does this solution relate to IPCEI-CIS?
The architecture is aligned with IPCEI-CIS’s specifications for federated cloud-edge environments. OpenNebula and IONOS also take part in initiatives that have grown out of this European program.
What is Virt8ra?
Virt8ra is an initiative coordinated by OpenNebula within the IPCEI-CIS ecosystem to develop and validate a sovereign, open, multi-vendor cloud-edge infrastructure using European technologies.