The European Commission is funding the provision of sovereign cloud services in Europe by awarding a €180 million contract to four providers: Post Telecom, STACKIT, Scaleway, and Proximus.
The tender will enable the EU’s various institutions, bodies and agencies to access Europe-based cloud services from these providers for over six years, ensuring that the union maintains strategic control over the digital technologies it uses.
According to the Commission’s official release, the four providers were chosen because they satisfied the eight objectives of the EU’s Cloud Sovereignty Framework. These objectives cover requirements related to security, compliance, supply chain transparency, technological transparency, the environment, EU law, EU strategy, and EU operations.
By setting minimum standards in each area, the Commission has previously suggested that it’s creating “a level playing field,” one which requires providers to design their services with EU sovereignty as a necessary foundation.
‘Diversification and resilience’ of European cloud services
The EC says it awarded the four contracts simultaneously to “ensure diversification and resilience,” with applicants having to offer “rigorous assurance” that third parties outside of the EU had “limited control” over the technologies used and services offered.
While the €180 million tender was limited to a maximum of four providers, the Commission believes it’s encouraging the entire cloud sector to become compliant with EU standards and practices. It also holds that the success of the tender has highlighted “the high quality” of European cloud providers, including their ability to meet exacting regulations.
According to the EC, it also highlighted the ability of non-European infrastructure and tech to operate within a framework sufficient for meeting sovereignty requirements, since more than one of the chosen providers are operating in collaboration with other firms.
For example, Post Telecom is a division of POST Luxembourg, the state-owned Luxembourgian provider of postal and telecoms services. It partnered with France’s OVHcloud and Clever Cloud to make its successful offer, with their consortium declaring in a press release that the EC’s framework will pave the way for the further deployment of sovereign tech solutions throughout Europe.
“What’s interesting here is that technological sovereignty isn’t simply a theoretical concept: it translates into actual infrastructure and platforms with players able to operate together at a production level,” said Clever Cloud CEO Quentin Adam. “This is also proof that European organisations can cooperate effectively and drive progress across the entire ecosystem.”
When ‘sovereign’ is not completely sovereign
Another grouping of several firms is organised around Belgian telecoms company Proximus, which has partnered with cloud provider S3NS, developer Mistral AI, cloud provider Clarence, and security provider Thales.
These four companies are based in France (or Luxembourg in the case of Clarence), although S3NS is a joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud, which provides the underlying technology.
This highlights how the European Commission does not expect ‘sovereign’ digital services or infrastructure to be completely sovereign, and has pragmatically adopted a definition that prioritises location and regulatory compliance.
However, the Commission’s awarding of the four contracts comes at a time when the Brussels-based Future of Technology Institute has warned that, because the vast majority of European countries depend (either directly or indirectly) on US tech firms for national security purposes, they’re at risk of a ‘kill switch’ in the event of political intervention from Washington.
This theoretical ability of the US to ‘pull the plug’ on European systems is a well-documented issue, but it seems that the EU’s eager move towards sovereign infrastructure is aimed at heading off such threats.
This move is also being increasingly complemented by the efforts of private organisations and companies, with Cubbit, SUSE, Elemento Cloud, and StorPool Storage recently partnering to announce a cloud ‘disaster recovery pack’ for scenarios where a preexisting supplier has denied access to services.
Read the full article here
