How partnering with The Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C) helped Sunlight to start up
At Sunlight, we see our partnership with the Science and Technology Park of Crete tech community and offices as having been integral to our success in building our software platform.
Going back more than 10 years, our relationship with STEP-C even pre-dates the Sunlight brand. It was during our collaboration with STEP-C Technology Park in the Horizon 2020 EuroServer project when we first began to explore the architectural principles around the lightweight hypervisor technology. This humble technology innovation is the cornerstone of the Sunlight edge product and will become the de facto core for the next generation of AI, IoT and Computer Vision applications and services running at the edge.
Sunlight, along with other innovative companies based in the STEP-C Technology Park, recommend it for any established or emerging tech company developing a software product and brand. Here’s why:
STEP-C Technology Park
Sunlight has had offices in the STEP-C since incubation. This has provided us with access to a thriving and innovative tech community, the latest research from the field, the ability to participate in research projects, and access to a highly-qualified talent pool.
Talent
STEP-C has a close affiliation with the University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH). The internationally recognized Institute of Computer Science (ICS) is one of the ten research institutes of FORTH. Computer Science students at the University regularly participate in ICS /FORTH Research and are highly qualified in their respective fields. FORTH/STEP-C hosts regular career days and advertises jobs to students — providing an exceptional talent pool for Sunlight to hire from. The design, development and definition of the Sunlight product has been led and shaped by key employees who have gained knowledge and expertise from their education at the University of Crete and as alumni of ICS /FORTH.
Research and development
As mentioned above, the Sunlight technology was incubated as a part of a research collaboration with FORTH and STEP-C in the Horizon 2020 EuroServer project. Since then, Sunlight has participated in the following research projects with STEP-C and/or its members:
- ACTiCLOUD: a collaboration with STEP-C member, Kaleao, to activate resource efficiency and large databases in the cloud.
- SHARCS: Sunlight participated in the FORTH-led SHARCS research project to design, build and demonstrate secure-by-design system architectures that achieve end-to-end security for their users.
- EVOLVE European Innovation Action Project: Sunlight and FORTH participated in this European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program to build a large-scale testbed by integrating technology from High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data and the Cloud.
Find out more about FORTH research projects.
Sunlight VP of Engineering, Athanasios Zografos said, “We specifically chose to grow our engineering team here in Crete because of our relationship with STEP-C and the many benefits they offer startups. Most of the engineering team has either done a degree at University of Crete and/or a research project with FORTH and STEP-C. STEP-C hasn’t just been a part of our history, we also see it as a part of our future. That’s why we’re continuing to invest and grow our engineering team here.”
