PRESS RELEASE: ELASTIC Mid-Term Success

Advancing secure, efficient, and portable orchestration of 6G edge–cloud services through WebAssembly, eBPF, and Confidential Computing.

The Horizon Europe project ELASTIC – Efficient, portabLe And Secure orchesTration for reliable servICes, funded by the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), has successfully completed its mid-term reporting period. The European Commission confirmed that ELASTIC delivered strong scientific, technical, and industrial progress, proving the feasibility of secure, portable, and confidential workload execution across edge, cloud, and 6G infrastructure.

At the midpoint of the project, ELASTIC has already demonstrated that future services can be executed anywhere — on-premise, at the edge, or in the cloud — without losing control over security, confidentiality, or performance.

Mid-Term Achievements at a Glance

During RP1, ELASTIC built the scientific, technological, and ecosystem foundations required to demonstrate secure edge–cloud orchestration at scale.

Technical and architectural progress

The consortium delivered a reference architecture, aligning all technical work packages. ELASTIC defined 26 software components, implemented first working versions of 14 prototypes, and derived 40+ functional and non-functional requirements directly from demonstrator needs. The project contributed to 7 major open-source ecosystems (LLVM, WASI, kube-rs, etc.), reinforcing technology transfer and adoption beyond the project.

Demonstrators and validation setup

Two demonstrators — Smart Connected Factory of the Future (D1) and Migration of a Sensitive IT Service from On-Premise to Public Cloud (D2) — were fully defined.

Three test environments were prepared across partner sites, and two MVPs were delivered to guide integration. More than 40 validation KPIs were defined to guarantee measurable impact.

Strategic and ecosystem engagement

ELASTIC established the External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB) and held its first meeting, providing validation and steering from leading European experts. The project engaged in collaboration with four clustering projects (CONFIDENTIAL6G, HARPOCRATES, RIGOUROUS, PREDICT-6G) and connected with five global innovation ecosystems, including the Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), CNCF, eBPF Foundation, OSF, and OECG. These engagements strengthen alignment with SNS JU priorities: trust, efficiency, and interoperability.

ELASTIC also contributes to SNS JU and 6G-IA strategic work, with participation in 2 programme boards (Steering and Technical), 1 Communication Task Force, and 9 SNS working groups covering security, architecture, hardware technologies, TMV, pre-standardisation, and software networking.

Dissemination, communication, and scientific visibility

The ELASTIC website attracted 2K+ unique visitors and 4.3K total visits, supported by active social media (590 followers) and the publication of 8 public deliverables, newsletters, videos, and press releases.

The consortium published 16 scientific papers, participated in 30+ events, organised a webinar with 125 participants, and distributed 1,700+ communication materials.

Exploitation and standardisation impact

ELASTIC completed the first phased exploitation plan, analysed exploitation potential for 26 components, and prioritised 5 Key Exploitable Results (KERs) for industrial uptake. The project contributes to standardisation through W3C/WASI, ETSI, 3GPP, ENISA, FIRST.org, and is already collaborating with 34+ external organisations, with 15 expressing interest in testing ELASTIC outputs.

Work Package Achievements

WP1 — Efficient, Portable and Secure Executable Isolation

During RP1, WP1 established the technical foundation of ELASTIC by analysing the state of the art in WebAssembly and eBPF sandboxing and using the findings to define the project’s component architecture (submitted as Deliverable D1.1). Building on this analysis, WP1 introduced new techniques to strengthen WebAssembly sandbox security, improving memory safety and enabling secure and portable execution both in traditional environments and in distributed deployments. WP1 also contributed to early confidential computing validation, demonstrating that WebAssembly workloads can be combined with secure enclave technologies such as Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP, ensuring portability and orchestration security across heterogeneous infrastructures.

In parallel, WP1 delivered tangible technical advances through innovative tooling and hardware acceleration. The team developed Pretty Verifier, a new eBPF static analysis tool that improves usability and vulnerability detection, and introduced an FPGA-accelerated intrusion detection system (IDS), already showing more than 25% performance improvement compared to software-based IDS. WP1 also contributed to open-source through early releases of WASI interfaces, the wasm-operator interface, and the ELASTIC HAL. Initial work explored portable packaging for WebAssembly components and feasibility of component models for eBPF—supporting future attestation, deployment, and integration into ELASTIC demonstrators.

In RP2, WP1 will focus on performing extensive analyses and memory-safety research. WP1 will expand the wacky static analysis tool to support the broader WASI component model, implement WASI-SPI hardware abstraction, and integrate enclave migration protocols into other ELASTIC components. Work will continue on modular Wasm/eBPF applications, including contributions to a joint WP6 whitepaper on standardisation gaps and recommendations.

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WP2 — Portable orchestration through WebAssembly-based FaaS

During RP1, WP2 delivered the core serverless FaaS orchestration results captured in D2.1 and D2.2. The team released the Propeller orchestrator (open-source) and a wasm-operator PoC enabling event-driven, low-footprint orchestration from cloud to RTOS and microcontroller nodes, and published CoCoS, an open-source confidential AI framework that runs ML inside TEEs. WP2 also produced Cyber-Physical WASI interfaces (i2c, usb, gpio prototypes), performed a large-scale security analysis of 2,758 serverless components (ESORICS 2025), demonstrated eBPF/XDP-accelerated communication (up to 2× throughput and large latency reductions), implemented eBPF state synchronization prototypes, and delivered initial observability tooling for Wasm FaaS.

In RP2, WP2 will harden and integrate these components for demonstrator validation: Propeller will be extended and integrated with Kubernetes and Zephyr RTOS, the wasm-operator will be productionised, and eBPF/XDP and RDMA-based communication acceleration and state-sync will be matured and benchmarked. Work will also focus on improving non-intrusive observability for serverless Wasm, finalising lightweight ABAC/capability-based access control for secure orchestration, advancing Cyber-Physical WASI specs (including SPI) and preparing scientific publications on confidential Wasm workload fingerprinting.

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WP3 — Confidential Computing and secure execution inside TEEs

WP3 achieved a milestone rarely reached in European R&I projects: executing WebAssembly workloads inside Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). Through Deliverable D3.1, the team developed the TEE Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and a minimal Linux HAL for confidential containers, enabling Wasm workloads to run unmodified on different confidential computing platforms. Initial support for remote attestation across multiple platforms was achieved, and a Proof of Concept showcased collective attestation for distributed workloads — an essential step toward secure orchestration across federated cloud and edge environments.

In RP2, WP3 will focus on optimisation and industrialisation. Partners will reduce TEE execution overheads, complete the multi-tenant orchestration agent, and finalise support for confidential container lifecycle management aligned with OCI standards. The team will also complete attestation integration into Wasm runtimes, enabling “zero-trust by default” deployment of workloads in Demonstrators.

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WP4 — Secure AI, data protection, and edge learning

WP4 advanced secure edge intelligence by developing AutoML-based defences against poisoning attacks on mobility datasets and validating them on real-world and simulated data. The team deployed Wasm runtimes on constrained edge devices and prepared the confidential computing infrastructure, demonstrating fast bootstrap and portability. Initial architecture was defined for secure data-at-rest using TEEs and embedded secure elements, contributing to KPIs on orchestration security, portability, and data protection (Deliverable D4.1).

During RP2, WP4 will integrate Federated / Split Learning with Trusted Execution Environments to enable secure distributed training across IoT and cloud. The work will incorporate remote attestation and secure element–based key storage, and extend testing to Wasm + hardware acceleration (GPU/FPGA). WP4 will complete secure data-at-rest protection using PKCS#11 and finalise integration of eBPF + AI-IDS into edge nodes for industrial demonstrators.

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WP5 — Demonstrators and MVP integration (where the research becomes real)

WP5 is where all ELASTIC technologies meet reality — transforming research into Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) deployed in real industrial environments.

During RP1, WP5 defined the technical and business requirements of both demonstrators, mapped ELASTIC components to use case needs, and developed the validation and KPI framework. Infrastructure was provisioned across both pilot sites, and integration touchpoints with WP1–WP4 technologies were finalised. (Deliverable 5.1)

The project is validating its innovations through two demonstrators:

• Demonstrator 1 — Smart Connected Factory of the Future (Industry 4.0 / ERF lead): D1 deploys an IoT Data Fabric across edge–fog–cloud to support predictive maintenance, real-time robot control and cross-factory data sharing. Using WebAssembly, TEEs, and eBPF/XDP, workloads run securely and with low latency on heterogeneous industrial devices.
• Demonstrator 2 — Privacy-preserving Cloud Migration (Enterprise IT / THD lead): D2 validates that sensitive IT services can be migrated to the public cloud without losing control, confidentiality, or data sovereignty. Using WebAssembly, TEEs, and Remote Attestation, ELASTIC ensures that workloads run securely inside Confidential Computing environments and that trust is verified before execution.

By the end of RP1, both demonstrators had already integrated first MVP components, proving interoperability of ELASTIC technologies and confirming the feasibility of the full integration planned for RP2.

In other words: ELASTIC is not just research — it already runs on real industrial infrastructure.

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WP6 — Dissemination, standardisation, and exploitation

In RP1, WP6 implemented the dissemination and communications strategy, resulting in strong visibility across online channels, the ELASTIC website, newsletters, and webinars. WP6 produced 16 scientific publications, multiple public deliverables, and contributed to open-source and standardisation bodies (ETSI, W3C/WASI, 3GPP, IETF/IRTF, ENISA, OASIS, CCC, CNCF, eBPF Foundation, etc.). Through Deliverable D6.2, WP6 defined the first standardisation and exploitation roadmap and identified the Key Exploitable Results (KERs), enabling structured innovation management during RP2.

In RP2, WP6 will intensify contributions to standardisation and mature the exploitation strategy into partner-specific business plans. Focus will be on strengthening the innovation ecosystem, increasing adoption opportunities, and preparing sustainability actions beyond the project.

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WP7 — Coordination, delivery, risks, and quality

WP7 ensured efficient management of the project, guaranteeing delivery of all RP1 deliverables with high quality and full compliance to SNS JU requirements. It oversaw planning, KPI tracking, risk mitigation, and ensured ethical and legal compliance across partners, including security and data-protection aspects.

In RP2, WP7 will continue to guide cross-WP integration, monitor the delivery of demonstrator milestones, and coordinate the exploitation and standardisation strategy to ensure ELASTIC achieves maximum impact at project closure.

A project with momentum

With breakthroughs in secure sandboxing, orchestration, confidential computing and applied AI security, and with demonstrators already running early MVPs, ELASTIC enters RP2 with strong momentum.

Funding acknowledgement

The ELASTIC project has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101139067.