SERRANO’s overall ambition is to introduce a novel ecosystem of cloud-based technologies, spanning from specialized hardware resources up to software toolsets. This will enable application-specific service instantiation and optimal customizations based on the workloads to be processed, in a holistic manner, thus supporting highly demanding, dynamic and security-critical applications. SERRANO is not only tuned and fully aligned with current trends in the cloud computing sector towards the expansion of cloud infrastructures so as to efficiently integrate edge resources, but it also integrates transparently HPC resources ir to provide an infrastructure that goes beyond the scope of the “normal” cloud and realizes a true computing continuum.

SERRANO introduces an abstraction layer that transforms the distributed edge, cloud and HPC resources into a single borderless infrastructure, while it also facilitates their automated and cognitive orchestration. It proposes the introduction and evolution of novel key concepts and approaches that aim to close existing technology gaps, towards the realization of advanced infrastructures, able to meet the stringent requirements of future applications and services. It will develop technologies and mechanisms related to security and privacy in distributed computing and storage infrastructures, hardware and software acceleration on cloud and edge, cognitive resource orchestration, dynamic data movement and task offloading between edge/cloud/HPC, transparent application deployment, energy-efficiency and realtime and zero-touch adaptability.

Finally, to highlight the proposed ecosystem’s scientific and technological significance, SERRANO will demonstrate three high impact use cases related to (i) secure cloud and edge storage over a diversity of cloud resources, (ii) fintech by supporting latency-sensitive and safety-critical digital services in the financial sector and (iii) machine anomaly detection in manufacturing for Industry 4.0.