Lessons learnt from a joint EC co-funded PCP — Cloud for Europe

The objective is to provide an intermediate evaluation of the Cloud for Europe project by describing lessons learnt to date and focussing on effectiveness, efficiency and risks. The lessons learnt include: (1) a PCP for Cloud Computing runs the risk of being overtaken by policy changes, or by technological developments in fast evolving markets. Increasing the level of innovation of the challenges in the tender may remedy that, as well as keeping the timeline of the PCP aligned with the speed of changes. (2) The Lead Authority procurement model is too fragile. Some form of redundancy should be introduced to make it more resilient. (3) Procurement models for joint, international procurement should be robust in order to keep performing well at all times. By taking these lessons learnt into account, the potential impact is that PCPs can become more successful although further work is needed on positioning PCP amongst other procurement processes for innovation.