(openPR) “Cloud Mall Baden-Württemberg” forges trust in cloud services for small and medium-sized enterprises
Cloud computing applications offer small and medium-sized enterprises many options for cutting costs and unburdening their IT systems. Yet when it comes to storing company data off premises, security concerns frequently outweigh the benefits. Fraunhofer IAO and its partners are demonstrating successful real-life examples and flexible solutions via the “Cloud Mall Baden-Württemberg,” which launched in Stuttgart on March 30, 2017.
Despite all the euphoria surrounding the potential digitalization and the rapid development of new technologies offer, SMEs in particular are often reluctant to make decisive changes to their existing IT constellations. Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Economics, Employment and Housing Construction launched the Cloud Mall BW with the aims of offering a community platform for cloud computing users and providers from different industries and reducing the hurdles to joining the cloud. “Cloud computing is one of the most important digitalization trends. The Cloud Mall Baden-Württemberg project, which is receiving nearly 4.6 million euros in funding from the Ministry of Economics, is specially designed to help SMEs tap the potential of cloud computing and strengthen their competitiveness,” said Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut at the opening event.
Using eight real-life examples ranging from human-robot interaction to the implementation of virtual reality in multi-project management, representatives from various SMEs in the region demonstrated how they are already successfully using cloud computing. These examples highlight for instance, how cloud services can help grow a startup’s IT setup as the company and its structure expand. Or how a small solar technology company can use cloud services to remotely and automatically monitor and maintain its customers’ photovoltaic systems. Cloud Mall BW offers more than just best practices, however. It also offers providers and users of cloud services with numerous opportunities for utilization and participation. In addition to a cloud community, which enables product and service providers to offer suitable cloud services and users to choose cloud services that best suit their requirements, the platform offers a space where all participants can exchange knowledge and experience. At the opening event at the Fraunhofer Institute Center Stuttgart, professor Anette Weisbecker, deputy director of Fraunhofer IAO, explained that “flexible and secure IT infrastructures are a strategic success factor for SMEs. With the Cloud Mall BW initiative, we are fostering a dialogue about cloud computing and are using practical examples to illustrate the options cloud services create.”
To build up SMEs’ trust in cloud solutions, the Cloud Mall BW is creating sector-specific cloud offers that cover the many individual needs that companies have and thus increase acceptance among the respective target groups. The suitability of offers is being examined in the pilot scenarios for four sectors. The target groups for the pilot scenarios are startups and small companies, retail trading companies and manufacturing companies with a focus on either optimizing products or developing innovative products and services. The scenarios explore typical use cases and illustrate these using what are known as cloud ecosystems. To create a transparent and trustworthy offer for providers and users alike, all cloud services are subject to established quality requirements, regardless of whether they feature cloud-based software or hardware. “We see Cloud Mall BW as an opportunity to test out other solutions, build up trust in cloud technologies among the SME target group, to implement these technologies and offer them sustainably,” said Dr. Jürgen Jähnert, managing director of bwcon GmbH and head of the project.
The Cloud Mall BW’s range of services is based on a survey of cloud service users and providers, which the project team used to identify focus areas, define hurdles, and to compare these with existing offers. The results are now being taken up in the pilot applications.
Interested companies are invited to enlist the help of the Cloud Mall BW. More information about ways to participate and register is available on the webpage www.cloud-mall-bw.de.
