ENTICE · Project

Cut Cloud Costs and Escape Vendor Lock-In With Smart VM Image Management

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Imagine you rent storage units from different companies, but each one uses a different lock system — so once you move your stuff in, you're stuck with that company. ENTICE built a universal "packing system" for cloud computing that makes your virtual machines lighter, portable, and able to run on any cloud provider. It automatically figures out the cheapest, fastest way to spread your workloads across multiple clouds. The result: lower bills, no lock-in, and your IT team stops wasting time reformatting things for each provider.

By the numbers

EUR 2,767,563

EU funding for development

consortium partners across 5 countries

validated industrial use cases (cloud, earth observation, energy)

57%

industry ratio in consortium

total project deliverables produced

SME partners involved

The business problem

What needed solving

Companies using multiple cloud providers waste significant IT resources maintaining separate VM image formats for each provider, creating vendor lock-in and inflated costs. Moving workloads between clouds requires manual reconfiguration, slowing deployment and limiting flexibility. There is no easy way to automatically optimize VM images for size, cost, and performance across federated cloud environments.

The solution

What was built

The ENTICE environment: a platform for creating lightweight, optimized VM images that run across multiple cloud providers without lock-in. It includes automatic VM image decomposition and distribution based on multi-objective optimization (performance, cost, storage, quality of service), plus auto-scaling across federated clouds. Validated through 3 industrial use cases with 40 deliverables produced.

Audience

Who needs this

Cloud service providers managing multi-tenant VM infrastructureEarth observation and satellite data processing companies running cross-cloud workloadsEnergy management platforms requiring distributed cloud computingEnterprise IT departments with multi-cloud strategies seeking to reduce vendor lock-inDevOps teams at mid-to-large companies optimizing cloud deployment costs

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Cloud Infrastructure & Hosting

enterprise

Target: Cloud service providers and managed hosting companies

If you are a cloud hosting provider struggling with inefficient VM image storage and slow deployment times — this project developed an environment that automatically creates lightweight, optimized VM images and distributes them across infrastructure based on performance and cost. With 3 validated use cases including cloud orchestration, this could reduce storage overhead and speed up provisioning.

Earth Observation & Geospatial

mid-size

Target: Satellite data processing and geospatial analytics companies

If you are a geospatial company processing large earth observation datasets across multiple cloud environments — this project built and validated an earth observation data processing use case that optimizes VM deployment for heavy computational workloads. The auto-scaling feature handles demand spikes without manual intervention or provider dependency.

Energy Management

SME

Target: Smart grid and energy management platform operators

If you are an energy management company running distributed computing across cloud providers for grid monitoring and data analysis — this project validated an energy management use case with automatic VM optimization and multi-cloud deployment. The technology eliminates the need to maintain separate VM configurations for each cloud provider you use.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would this cost to implement?

The ENTICE environment was developed with EUR 2,767,563 in EU funding across 7 partners. Based on available project data, there is no published pricing model for commercial licensing. Costs would depend on negotiation with the consortium, particularly the coordinator at Universitaet Innsbruck.

Can this work at industrial scale?

The project validated 3 distinct use cases at scale: cloud orchestration (FCO), earth observation data processing (EOD), and cloud service provider operations (CSP). The system was designed specifically for federated cloud infrastructures, meaning it was built to handle multi-provider, distributed environments from the start.

What about IP and licensing?

This was a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) funded under Horizon 2020. IP is typically shared among the 7 consortium partners across 5 countries. Licensing terms would need to be discussed directly with the consortium coordinator or the 3 SME partners involved in the project.

How does this integrate with existing cloud infrastructure?

ENTICE was designed to work across federated cloud environments without requiring changes to the underlying providers. The installation and deployment deliverables confirm integration guidelines were produced for connecting the ENTICE environment with existing cloud setups. The 4 industry partners in the consortium helped ensure real-world compatibility.

Is this technology still current?

The project ran from 2015 to 2018, so the core research is mature. Cloud portability and multi-cloud management remain active industry challenges in 2026. The underlying optimization algorithms and VM decomposition techniques may still be applicable, though integration with current cloud platforms would need verification.

Were there real-world tests?

Yes. The consortium ran 3 validated use cases with industrial partners: cloud orchestration with FCO, earth observation data processing with EOD, and cloud service provider operations. The project produced 40 deliverables total, including 4 dedicated demo deliverables covering deployment and evaluation of each use case.

Consortium

Who built it

The ENTICE consortium of 7 partners from 5 countries (Austria, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, UK) is notably industry-heavy at 57%, with 4 industry partners and 3 SMEs alongside 2 universities and 1 research organization. This composition signals the project was built to deliver practical results, not just academic papers. The coordinator, Universitaet Innsbruck in Austria, brings research depth, while the strong SME presence (3 out of 7 partners) suggests the technology was shaped by real commercial needs in cloud services, earth observation, and energy management. For a business looking to adopt this technology, the industrial partners would be the most natural first contacts for implementation support.

UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCKCoordinator · AT
DEIMOS ENGINEERING AND SYSTEMS SLUparticipant · ES
FLEXIANT LIMITEDparticipant · UK
WELLNESS TELECOM SLparticipant · ES
HUN-REN SZAMITASTECHNIKAI ES AUTOMATIZALASI KUTATOINTEZETparticipant · HU
FLEXIOPS LIMITEDparticipant · UK
UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANIparticipant · SI

How to reach the team

Universitaet Innsbruck (Austria) — academic coordinator. For commercial discussions, consider reaching through the SME partners who validated the use cases.

Order a report on this consortium See UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want an introduction to the ENTICE team or a tailored brief on how their VM optimization technology could reduce your multi-cloud costs? Contact SciTransfer — we connect businesses with EU research teams.

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