Apeiro Reference Architecture - News

ApeiroRA presents at WorldS4

2026-08-10T00:00:00Z

On July 29th, 2026 we attended the WorldS4 Conference in London and presented our paper Building Immersive Digital Twins: An Empirical Stakeholder Study of Barriers and Open Source Building Blocks in the European AR, VR, and IoT Ecosystem. WorldS4 brings together international experts from technology, science and business to explore advances in digital systems that support sustainable transformation.

The conference is organized across four tracks, ranging from digital infrastructure and computational systems to applications in government and engineering. Our paper contributed to Track 1: Infrastructure and Computation and addressed the critical question: Why do so many Digital Twin initiatives deliver promising results in the pilot phase - but fail to scale in production environments? We approached this question by conducting a series of stakeholder interviews with representatives from industry, academia, and technology providers. The findings identified interoperability and content creation as the most significant challenges to large-scale adoption. The research also examined the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in immersive Digital Twins, from content generation and data integration to autonomous runtime support. To widen AI-adoption in system-critical roles, participants highlighted trust, transparency, and explainability as essential prerequisites.

In response to the barriers identified through the study, the paper presents a set of reusable open-source building blocks developed within the Immersive Data Center Management (IDCM) project. The proposed components include interoperability layers, CAD-to-XR conversion toolchains, and open AI agent runtimes. The modular architecture enables the integration of Digital Twin capabilities across heterogeneous infrastructures, reduces external dependencies, and accelerates the development of scalable solutions.

By addressing key challenges in the cloud-edge ecosystem, this work supports ApeiroRA's strategic objective of creating open, interoperable, and sovereign digital foundations for the seamless deployment of next-generation immersive applications.

The paper will subsequently be published in Springer's Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems (LNNS).

Private LLM and Chat UI: Now Open-Source on Platform Mesh

2026-05-18T00:00:00Z

Today we are open-sourcing the Private LLM and Chat UI providers for Platform Mesh, together with a step-by-step tutorial that runs the entire demo on a single laptop in about 35 minutes.

Platform Mesh turns Kubernetes operators into managed services: a provider writes an operator once, registers it through Platform Mesh, and every customer reaches it through their own workspace, never touching the cluster where the operator runs. What we want to highlight with this example is composition. Private LLM and Chat UI are completely independent (different teams, different repos, different operators) but they compose into a working private chatbot through a single Secret contract. The customer wires them together; the provider teams never have to coordinate.

Private LLM runs a llama.cpp inference server. The customer creates an LLMInstance and the provider hands back a Secret with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Chat UI deploys a per-tenant Open WebUI. The customer creates a ChatUIInstance pointing at any OpenAI-compatible Secret, including the one Private LLM just created.

Try it on your laptop. The full tutorial is published as part of the Apeiro Reference Architecture documentation. Everything runs inside a single Kind cluster, yet the logical layers match the production setup exactly. You play both roles: first the platform team, then the customer.

Start the tutorial: Local Platform Mesh with LLM & Chat UI

NeoNephos Presentation at Summit On European Digital Sovereignty Side Event on YouTube

2025-12-04T00:00:00Z

Our presentation at the Role of Open Source to advance the Sovereign Cloud Edge Continuum side event of the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty has been uploaded to the NeoNephos YouTube channel!

You'll see representatives from member organizations of NeoNephos introduce the audience through interactive talks to its projects and the value NeoNephos provides to the sovereign cloud native ecosystem.

ApeiroRA presents at ACM IMC 2025

2025-10-30T00:00:00Z

At the 25th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2025, Arno Uhlig presents the paper "The SAP Cloud Infrastructure Dataset: A Reality Check of Scheduling and Placement of VMs in Cloud Computing". In this paper, we analyze telemetry data from 1,800 hypervisors and 48,000 Virtual Machines (VMs), which are part of the SAP Cloud Infrastructure, covering a 30-day observation period. We make the dataset publicly available since reproducible research is at the heart of ApeiroRA. This is the first public dataset providing VM workload of a major cloud infrastructure. The dataset already informed the development of Cortex, a novel placement and scheduling solution for workloads of the entire cloud-edge continuum. We hope that the SAP Cloud Infrastructure Dataset also serves as a reference dataset to advance future research on scheduling of compute, storage, network, and GPU workloads.

ACM IMC is a highly selective venue for the presentation of cutting-edge measurement-based research in data communications. This year's conference focuses on advancing the state of the art in the collection, usage, analysis, and sharing of network measurements for the research community. Our paper contributes to reproducibility of research as well as sharing of data.

This work is the result of a research collaboration between SAP and the Chair of Distributed and Networked Systems at TU Dresden.

2025 API World Award won by ORD

2025-07-18T00:00:00Z

We're excited to announce that Open Resource Discovery has won the 2025 API Award in the Best in API Standards & Specifications category. API World 2025 is the world's largest API & microservices conference, and the 2025 API Awards are the definitive awards for the API & microservices industry. The 10th annual API Awards celebrate the technical innovation and solutions in the global API economy.

The API economy has matured extensively over the past decade, and Open Resource Discovery is helping API & integration professionals and engineers build the future of APIs in the multi-trillion-dollar market for API-driven products and services in the age of AI.

"Today's cloud-based solutions are increasingly powered by API-centric architecture and platforms, with renewed focus on APIs with the rise of agentic AI and MCPs. Open Resource Discovery's win here at the 2025 API Awards is evidence of their leading role in the growth of the global API ecosystem," said Jonathan Pasky, Executive Producer & Co-Founder of DevNetwork, producers of the API World conference & the 2025 API Awards.

Award winners were selected by the independent, expert-led DevNetwork API Advisory Board, based on criteria including: technical innovation; attracting notable attention and awareness in the API industry; and general regard and use by API and integration communities.

SAP SE will be presented its 2025 API Award during API World 2025 (Sept 3-5, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA & Sept 10-12, Live Online), the world's largest international API & integration conference with over 250+ speakers and 50+ global partners.

ApeiroRA Documentation Updated!

2025-07-01T00:00:00Z

Today marks our Q2 release of the Apeiro Reference Architecture Documentation This extends our technical manual with many additional topics.

New Content in the updated Apeiro Reference Architecture Documentation:

New Architecture Overview Section: Learn the different layers of Apeiro.
New Data Fabric Section: Learn about what a Data Fabric is and its relation to Apeiro.
New Showroom Section: Demonstrate the power of the ApeiroRA toolkit by learning how to set up functioning "showroom" deployments.
New Resources Section: Find useful resources like slide decks or links to conference talks further explaining Apeiro.

So even if you have already read the previous version of the documentation, you will gain many new insights!

Start your journey at https://documentation.apeirora.eu/!

Webcast: Strengthening Digital Sovereignty for Europe

2025-04-25T00:00:00Z

Join us on May 8th at 3:00 pm CEST, for a public webinar about ApeiroRA and SAP's involvement in the new NeoNephos Foundation.

Peter Giese, Head of the SAP Open Source Program Office, will provide an overview of why and how this project has been transferred into NeoNephos. He will also discuss how NeoNephos will serve as a neutral entity dedicated to fostering open collaboration and governance.
Vasu Chandrasekhara, Chief Product Owner of the Apeiro Project, will explain the landscape of ApeiroRA with an overview of the architecture and components and discuss the software and data sharing tools that make up this European cloud-edge continuum. Additionally, he will offer a glimpse into some of its functionality.

Join the conversation here:

https://events.sap.com/apeiro-reference-architecture/en/registration.aspx

Speakers: Peter Giese, Head of the SAP Open Source Program Office and Vasu Chandrasekhara, Chief Product Owner of the Apeiro Project, SAP

Host: SAP Open Source Program Office

NeoNephos Foundation

NeoNephos Foundation Announcement

2025-04-02T00:00:00Z

The Linux Foundation Europe announced the official launch of the NeoNephos Foundation. With SAP's continuous commitment to open innovation, we are proud to announce that we are a founding member along with Clyso GmbH, Cyberus Technology, Deutsche Telekom AG, STACKIT, TNO-ECOFED, and 23 Technologies GmbH. NeoNephos serves as a collaborative environment that accelerates the development of market-ready open-source innovations. Its goal is to reduce dependency on non-European platforms, enhance cybersecurity, and enable businesses to scale with confidence.

NeoNephos, one of the first open-source outcomes of the IPCEI-CIS EU investment, emerges as a response to the demand for secure, scalable, and transparent cloud solutions that support European goals of digital sovereignty. As European enterprises and public institutions face growing regulatory requirements and the need for greater control over their cloud infrastructure, NeoNephos provides a trusted foundation for open, interoperable, and future-proof solutions.

SAP is reinforcing its commitment to this vision by donating several of our flagship open source projects like Gardener, Garden Linux, IronCore, CobaltCore, Greenhouse, Open Micro Frontend Platform, Open Resource Discovery, Open Component Model, Open Managed Control Plane and Platform Mesh. ApeiroRA, a key contributor, therefore plays a pivotal role in underpinning the technical robustness and enterprise readiness of NeoNephos.

SAP's active participation in NeoNephos sets a new industry benchmark for innovation in sovereign cloud technologies while delivering real economic and strategic value to the European digital economy.

We are thrilled to be part of a journey that advances the objective of a collaborative, secure, and interoperable cloud and edge ecosystem in Europe and welcome additional members, contributors, and collaborators to get involved in our efforts.

For more details, see the full press release from Linux Foundation Europe.

Learn more about NeoNephos on its official website.

ORD Provider Server

2025-04-01T00:00:00Z

In an advancement for the ApeiroRA Data Fabric, the ORD provider server has been published as a robust storage solution for metadata within the comprehensive ORD framework. This innovative server not only stores metadata but also serves static ORD documents and related metadata, streamlining the management process. It supports multiple authentication methods, such as open auth, basic auth, and mTLS, making it flexible for different use cases.

The overarching aim of this component is to establish a cohesive ORD ecosystem that facilitates the creation, validation, and publication of aligned metadata. By prioritizing automation and enhancing the developer experience, ApeiroRA Data Fabric is finalizing the desired architecture around ORD, marking a pivotal step in the evolution of metadata management. It has been open-sourced to encourage collaboration and innovation among partners and interested parties.

Please find more details here.

ApeiroRA Documentation: First version released!

2025-03-13T00:00:00Z

We are proud to announce that today marks the release of the first version of the Apeiro Reference Architecture Documentation While apeirora.eu has given users plenty of high level information about the architecture, a dedicated technical manual for architects and been missing thus far.

The technical documentation for ApeiroRA outlines its core concepts and technical building blocks. It explains how these elements integrate with the Platform Mesh. The documentation caters to experienced users and beginners alike, by guiding the reader through a step-by-step journey, ranging from the abstract how mathematical control theory relates to Kubernetes to concrete implementation details of Platform Mesh.

Features of the Apeiro Reference Architecture Documentation:

Modularized Content: Modularized sections allow beginners and veteran practitioneers to skip content as they see fit.
WIP toggle: The documentation can be toggled between the current state and future release versions, allowing one to plan ahead and get an overview of things to come.
Useful Background Information: General, interesting background insights and knowledge is presented, gaining one a deep understanding into the why and not just how.
Regular Updates: We commit to regularly update the documentation, leaving you with current, up-to-date knowledge.

The entire content is work in progress, so some things may change, but we invite you all to join us on this journey!

The Apeiro Reference Documentation is the true way to learn ApeiroRA.

Start your journey at https://documentation.apeirora.eu/!