Orange Business Selected to Deploy EU's TESTA-EIRIS Backbone Network
Orange Business has been selected to deploy the TESTA-EIRIS backbone network intended for institutions and public administrations of European Union member states. This project aims to secure data exchanges between European public entities.
A Private Backbone for European Union Administrations
Orange Business has been chosen as a partner for the TESTA-EIRIS network (Enhanced Infrastructure for Reliable Interconnectivity and Security). The company will deploy, for public administrations of European Union member states, an isolated and secure private communications backbone.
This network must connect European Union institutions, bodies and agencies, as well as member state administrations, with the objective of strengthening the resilience and sovereignty of communications at European scale.
Orange Business will provide layers 2 and 3 backbone services, presented as essential to the functioning of the infrastructure, its integration and scalability. The group will work with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Digital Services (DG DIGIT), responsible for the design, deployment and management of this digital ecosystem.
An Architecture Based on Twelve Points of Presence
The architecture will be based on a single backbone connecting at least 12 points of presence (PoPs), distributed across five strategic European regions. The press release mentions high availability of 99.999% and resilience between sites and multicloud environments.
Orange Business will provide the network technology building blocks, supported by a network operations center (NOC) and a security operations center (SOC). The solution will combine the backbone, cloud connectivity and virtual private networks (VPNs) to connect geographically dispersed sites.
Evolution Platform at the Heart of the Project
The project will rely on Evolution Platform, Orange Business's connectivity platform, designed around artificial intelligence. It replaces dedicated equipment with virtualized, software-driven services to deliver digital services to businesses.
Richard van Wageningen, Europe Director at Orange Business, stated that the European Union is making digital trust a strategic priority and that the TESTA-EIRIS project is part of the ambition to build a secure European digital ecosystem.
