Three key research centers and a consortium of Internet companies said on Thursday they would work together on a European cloud computing platform to handle the continent's rapidly growing demand for computer capacity.
A statement from CERN, the Geneva-based particle physics organization, said the platform -- dubbed "Helix Nebula-the Science Cloud" -- would be made available to government bodies and industry after a two-year pilot phase. Also participating in the program are the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German-based European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), which like CERN are gathering vast volumes of information that cannot presently be processed. The 13 information technology providers involved include French-based Atos, Paris-based Cap Gemini, UK-based Logica, French-based Orange Business Services, Spain's Telefonica and French-based Thales, the statement said. "This pan-European partnership across academia and industry ...…
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