Understanding
the CEI ecosystem
via the Hourglass
Model

Understanding the CEI Ecosystem via the Hourglass Model

📅 12 January 2026  |  🕒 15:00–16:15 (CET)  |  🌐 Online webinar

Digital ecosystems spanning Cloud, Edge and IoT are becoming increasingly complex. Energy, mobility, manufacturing and smart city systems now rely on a dense mesh of technologies, platforms, standards and stakeholders that must work together seamlessly. Yet understanding how these elements connect, and where organisations truly sit within this landscape, remains a major challenge.

This webinar introduces the Hourglass Model, developed within CEI-Sphere, as a practical framework to help stakeholders make sense of complex digital ecosystems. By visualising how capabilities, platforms and actors align across layers, the model provides a shared language for collaboration, innovation and strategic positioning.

Why attend this webinar

The Hourglass Model is designed for anyone working with or within Cloud–Edge–IoT ecosystems who needs to understand:

• how digital ecosystems are structured,
• how different stakeholders depend on each other,
• where interoperability and coordination matter most,
• and how value is created across layers.

During the webinar, participants will learn not only what the Hourglass Model is, but also how it is already being applied in European research and innovation projects and how it can be adapted to domains such as energy, mobility and data-driven services.