DATI Group Participates in the Largest Open Source Project in Europe

DATI Group is the first Latvian company to receive approval for the implementation of a project co-financed by the European Commission (EC) under the IPCEI-CIS (Important Projects of Common European Interest – Cloud Infrastructure Services) initiative. This is the largest project aimed at strengthening digital policy, with the primary objective of providing Europe a competitive advantage against major U.S. cloud technology companies. Over the next three years, DATI Group plans to develop a digital twin platform as part of this project.

The IPCEI-CIS project involves 12 member states, with Latvia being the only Baltic country participating. Half of the project is funded by the EC, while a similar amount must be contributed by the participating countries. The total budget of the IPCEI-CIS project is €3.5 billion. These funds will be invested in creating an open, sustainable cloud-edge computing platform independent of manufacturers.

As part of the project, DATI Group plans to develop a platform for the development and operation (DevOps) of digital twins. A digital twin is a practical application of artificial intelligence, serving as a digital model of a product, system, or process (the physical twin) that analyzes real-time data to make decisions impacting the physical twin. This can be used for simulation, testing, monitoring, or maintenance purposes, such as automatically regulating temperatures in factories or adjusting traffic lights during rush hours.

Digital twin products and solutions already exist but are typically provided by large U.S. technology companies, which come with certain limitations. Digital twins can only be created if the specific manufacturer's sensors, cameras, cloud storage, and platforms are also used. As a result, creating a digital twin has been disproportionately expensive and offered limited customization options for businesses. "With the IPCEI project, we aim to democratize this process. Our platform will be based on open-source code that anyone can use and adapt to their needs," explains DATI Group board member Rasa Gulbe.

The platform's development is planned in collaboration with leading European technology companies SAP (Germany) and Engineering Ingegneria Informatica (Italy). SAP aims to create an open-source cloud platform reference architecture, while Engineering Ingegneria Informatica intends to develop a standardized and simplified digital twin.

About the progress of the DATI Group project, read here: IPCEI Next Generation Cloud Infrastructures and Services DigiTDevOps