The four-year Cloud Software Program of Digile Ltd, funded by Tekes, is organising a closing seminar on the 13th of December in Helsinki at the Marina Congress Center.

In the closing seminar, the companies and research organisations that took part in the Cloud Software program will present their results.

The companies that took part in the Cloud Software program have benefited year by year more than has been invested in the whole programme over four years. The total gain to the companies that have taken part in the program (including speeding up their production cycles) has been even as much as 100 million euros a year. The total budget of the program was over 60 million euros. Cloud technologies enable an even faster digital economy and Finnish IT companies are well on board in this revolution.

”We are the forerunners in Europe,” says the Cloud Software program director Janne Järvinen from F-Secure.

However, technology alone will not be enough to maintain a global competitive edge but companies and the public sector also have to take into account changes in business activity, technology and the working practices of the whole organisation. Small firms are usually naturally agile, but the challenges for larger organisations are harder.

”The customer does not care if the provider of the service on the net is small or large but only demands an overall service that is not only functional but also pleasant, and rapid reactions to problems – not everyone is capable of this,” Järvinen continues.

The recent revelations that relate to internet spying have accelerated the need to set up more secure European cloud services. The Cloud Software programme has contributed to the birth of F-Secure’s Younited cloud service, amongst others. Ericsson Finland has developed cloud data security in its systems and the data security of the open-source OpenStack software has been improved. In addition, applications were developed during the programme which made it possible to develop one’s own cloud services with open-source programs. Some of these are the Tieto Open Application Suite of Tieto and the Arvue of Vaadin Ltd.

In the Cloud Software program, the aim was to change companies towards more agile software development and a more streamlined working culture. This has been very successful and the results of the program have interested European developers of cloud services.

In the program, open cloud platforms, agile development processes and changes to business operation models were studied comprehensively. The creation of a superior user experience and safe cloud solutions was a theme that ran through all the research. At the same time, concrete problems were solved with experimenting and development work. The core results of the programme have been collated in four guides, which have been published on the website of the Cloud Software programme.

”The results are not only significant to business but also to science, which I consider to be a very good thing,” says the academic co-ordinator of the program, Professor Veikko Seppänen.

The changes made possible by cloud technologies are extremely comprehensive and affect us all.
”There will be no going back to the old way – do you want to stay with the development or are you in danger of falling under it?” asks Janne Järvinen.

The closing seminar of the Cloud Software program, 13.12, Marina Congress Center, Helsinki
Cloud Software Finland was Digile’s four-year (2010-2014) programme in which the focus was on the development of the various constituent parts of cloud services. The program was funded by Tekes.
Further information:
Janne Järvinen
Focus Area Director
janne.jarvinenATf-secure.com
+358407544738