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Venus-C has just launched its Open Call looking for pilot applications to get up and running on the cloud.

Funded by the European Commission, Venus-C brings together industrial partners and researchers to create an enterprise-quality cloud service for Europe. To help expand the community they already have, they have launched this new initiative to fund between 10 and 20 new schemes. These pilots will also help gather additional requirements for the platform, alongside testing and validating it. The projects will have access to all of the resources VENUS-C control and be given start-up funds to get the ball rolling.

The expertise at Venus-C will also work with the successful applicants to determine what features and capabilities of Cloud computing best support their work. They hope to attract interest from a diverse range of disciplines including; the Arts & Humanities, Engineering, Health & Life Sciences, Economics, Financial Services, and Natural Sciences. Of particular interest are applications that require dynamic scaling and ubiquitous availability.

Andrea Manieri is one of the coordinators in engineering group at Venus-C and is looking forward to what this means for the project and cloud computing in general “Venus-C already has a compelling range of applications but this open call will broaden the scope of the project, and help ensure the future of an academic cloud infrastructure in Europe”.

The call is open to public and private research organisations and runs from the 11th of January to the 11th of April, 2011. The entire fund is €400,000 which will be equally divided among successful candidates. All Call documents and more information are available online.

The European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and the Initiative for Globus in Europe (IGE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) yesterday, 20 January, at EGI.eu's headquarters in Amsterdam. The MoU formalises the continuing business relationship between the two institutions.

The MoU establishes that IGE will provide new technology components to the EGI’s software repository. Specific software provision details will be defined in the future, through Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

The agreement was signed by Steven Newhouse director of EGI.eu, on behalf of EGI, and Helmut Heller, project director of IGE.

“IGE is the first technology provider to sign an agreement to provide software to EGI,” says Newhouse. “Building strong business relations with external technology providers is key to ensuring the long-term sustainability we want to offer to our stakeholders and users.”

IGE is a project set up to support and develop the Globus toolkit and strengthen the influence of European developers in the Globus alliance.

“This agreement is a very important first step to support Globus users in Europe,” says Heller. “And we hope the first of many successful steps in the IGE-EGI collaboration,” he adds.

IGE was the first technology provider to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, but it won’t be alone for long. EGI is set to sign more agreements in the coming weeks.

The European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and the Initiative for Globus in Europe (IGE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) yesterday, 20 January, at EGI.eu's headquarters in Amsterdam. The MoU formalises the continuing business relationship between the two institutions.

The MoU establishes that IGE will provide new technology components to the EGI’s software repository. Specific software provision details will be defined in the future, through Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

The agreement was signed by Steven Newhouse director of EGI.eu, on behalf of EGI, and Helmut Heller, project director of IGE.

“IGE is the first technology provider to sign an agreement to provide software to EGI,” says Newhouse. “Building strong business relations with external technology providers is key to ensuring the long-term sustainability we want to offer to our stakeholders and users.”

IGE is a project set up to support and develop the Globus toolkit and strengthen the influence of European developers in the Globus alliance.

“This agreement is a very important first step to support Globus users in Europe,” says Heller. “And we hope the first of many successful steps in the IGE-EGI collaboration,” he adds.

IGE was the first technology provider to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, but it won’t be alone for long. EGI is set to sign more agreements in the coming weeks.