European Commission considers replacing Microsoft Azure with close-to-home alternative

OVHcloud said to be preferred option as prospect of nearsourcing vital infrastructure gains appeal

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The European Commission is in talks with European cloud providers to significantly reduce its reliance on US suppliers. OVHcloud is said to have winning cards.

But, Euractiv reports from three sources, local alternatives may still be under consideration. The news site reported that Germany’s Ionos, France’s Scaleway and Aruba from Italy are also in the conversation.

France’s OVHcloud has confirmed it is in talks with the Commission. The EU executive confirms the talks hav begun, but describes it as an ongoing process with no final made as yet.

Most remarkable is the Commission’s apparent decision to disengage from US cloud infrastructure and choose a local provider. This is a step toward greater digital sovereignty, but also a signal of trust in the local ecosystem.

European cloud providers are some way from being on par with American counterparts in terms of capacity and features, however, the prospect of loosening reliance on an entity based outside the EU bloc has a certain appeal.

“Digital sovereignty means full management of your own digital footprint. It means avoiding lock-in. But it also means fully understanding all interactions between internal and external systems,” wrote Marcel Timmer on Emerce.

Just last spring, a large group of European tech companies in a letter called on the Commission to ‘nearsource’ more tech infrastructure.

“Europe must take back the initiative and become more technologically independent in all layers of its critical digital infrastructure: from logical infrastructure: applications, platforms, media, AI frameworks and models to physical infrastructure like chips, storage and connectivity. It is time for radical action,” the group said.

Signatories to the letter included Airbus, Cubbit, lobby groups such as European AI Forum and European Startup Network but also, for example, Ecosia, Element, Proton, Getyourguide, Nextcloud and, as the only Dutch body, the AMS-IX.

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