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What is in Apeiro Reference Architecture?

ApeiroRA breaks the cloud-to-edge vision into three domains:

• Data Fabric (DF) handles data discovery, exchange, and integration. It defines common conventions for data and metadata, letting processes and applications connect more freely—even across vendor boundaries. Data flows where it needs to go, and processes can be assembled or automated more easily.
• Cloud Operating System (COS) uses Kubernetes as a common language across distributed clouds. Participants can adapt it to their infrastructure (OpenStack, public clouds, etc.). Software qualified on COS runs natively across the stack. We include best practices, tools, and automation for development, lifecycle management, and infrastructure-as-data.
• Baremetal Operating System (BOS) lets infrastructure partners operate their own hardware independently. It uses Kubernetes to manage compute, storage, and networking resources. It also includes an OpenStack distribution (containerized) for legacy workloads.

We’re developing ApeiroRA iteratively with other IPCEI participants. The foundation comes from hardened components that already run production clouds at SAP and elsewhere. This isn’t theoretical, it’s proven technology packaged for wider use.

What Challenges does Apeiro Reference Architecture address?

Software providers struggle with Europe’s fragmented cloud infrastructure. Each local provider with different interfaces adds qualification and operations costs. The addressable market shrinks because every region requires separate work.

Interoperability is limited. Services on different providers mostly communicate via the internet, the same way any two websites do. This works because internet protocols are open standards. Decades ago, networks faced similar fragmentation before standards solved it. We’re applying the same approach to clouds.

Market forces haven’t driven cloud interoperability in Europe. Instead, they’ve increased fragmentation while a few global platforms dominate through scale and uniformity. IPCEI-CIS and ApeiroRA address this by creating a common foundation that preserves competition while enabling interoperability.

How does Apeiro Reference Architecture aim to solve the challenge?

The solution is already emerging from industry practice. Cloud-native development and open standards point the way:

• Software builders design microservices with discoverable APIs, aligned data models, and shared metadata. Different products, even from different vendors, can compose into integrated solutions automatically. Cloud-native infrastructure (resiliency, scalability, portability) supports business needs directly.

• Application developers package workloads in containers and deploy to Kubernetes, especially when targeting multiple clouds or on-premises infrastructure.

• Service providers build platforms and SaaS products internally with containers, integrate components from the cloud-native ecosystem, and deploy everything via Kubernetes; both for workloads and management automation.

• Infrastructure providers differentiate through specialized IaaS offerings, but customers demand Kubernetes compatibility. Most providers now offer managed Kubernetes.

Other deployment technologies exist, but like Linux before it, cloud-native patterns and Kubernetes have become the industry baseline. ApeiroRA provides production-ready components built on this foundation.

How to apply Apeiro Reference Architecture?

ApeiroRA provides a construction kit for building interoperable cloud infrastructure. It uses cloud-native standards that modern software already relies on: Linux, containers, and Kubernetes. Any containerized workload (e.g., stateless services, databases, batch jobs, AI training) can run across the mesh with compatible APIs at every node on the cloud-to-edge continuum.

Kubernetes is known for container orchestration, but its declarative API design is general-purpose. This gives us the uniformity needed for the cloud-to-edge continuum. Existing platforms and infrastructure can integrate too.

Software providers using cloud-native standards can design solutions with common patterns and deploy consistently across any infrastructure built with ApeiroRA. Infrastructure providers can add their own value and differentiation while maintaining compatibility.

Yes, Apeiro Reference Architecture is created open!

ApeiroRA development is decentralized, transparent, and iterative. It’s true open source.

Projects use enterprise-friendly open-source licenses. Where appropriate, we donate them to neutral governance under NeoNephos (part of Linux Foundation Europe). We actively contribute to and collaborate with defining open-source projects: Linux Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, Apache Software Foundation. Together, these form a European digital commons.

ApeiroRA delivers digital sovereignty at scale by providing a baseline of proven open standards — no reinventing, just practical foundations. SAP is providing the first step. Join us in shaping what comes next.

Why is SAP investing in Apeiro Reference Architecture?

SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software. We run large-scale cloud infrastructure for customers across industries. Moving SAP’s portfolio to cloud-native architecture gives us direct experience with the challenges ApeiroRA addresses.

As a European company, we’re committed to European values. ApeiroRA is our contribution to building independent, interoperable cloud infrastructure that European organizations can control and trust.