At Italian Tech Week 2025, one of Italy’s leading innovation events, which this year welcomed over 15,000 participants, we presented the 8ra project and the strategic role of open source in the European technology landscape.
Throughout the event, held at TIM’s Customer Innovation Center within the OGR in Turin, attendees had the opportunity to engage with project experts and explore firsthand the benefits and growth potential of one of the most ambitious initiatives in industrial research and development: the creation of a cutting-edge cloud and edge computing infrastructure. This infrastructure is based on a network of uniformly managed data centers and high-performance, widespread connectivity, ensuring seamless integration between cloud and edge environments and enabling a range of innovative digital services that fully leverage this ecosystem.
The true strength of 8ra lies in its adoption of the open source model as the main driver of innovation. This approach, supported by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU program and the IPCEI-CIS initiative, accelerates technological development and fosters open collaboration among companies, developers, and institutions.
During the presentation, we explained how open source is radically transforming the way technology is developed. It’s no longer just about sharing code—it’s about embracing a collaborative model that promotes interoperability, improves product quality, and makes software development more agile and sustainable.
We also highlighted the significant economic advantages of adopting open source: sharing development and maintenance costs enables greater ambition and quality in projects, while actively overcoming the limitations of technological lock-in that often hinder innovation. For companies, this approach provides access to more advanced technologies at lower overall costs, critically maintaining autonomy and freedom of choice.
The event also provided an opportunity to showcase the main open source projects in which TIM is involved, including Sylva, Camara, Nephio, NeoNephos, and Katalis clear evidence of the company’s concrete commitment to this new paradigm.
To learn more about the objectives of the project and find out how to collaborate, click here.
