Europe faces a critical dependency on US cloud infrastructure, with 90% of its digital infrastructure controlled by American companies, according to competition expert Cristina Caffarra[1]. This vulnerability has spurred concrete action, with public institutions in Austria, Germany, France and the International Criminal Court moving away from US providers.
The core issue stems from the US CLOUD Act of 2018, which allows American authorities to access data held by US companies regardless of location, conflicting directly with EU privacy laws[1:1]. This creates an “irreconcilable legal conflict” since any contract between European customers and US cloud providers is subordinate to US federal law.
Several key developments highlight this shift:
- Austria’s Federal Ministry for Economy completed migration of 1,200 employees to European open-source platform Nextcloud[1:2]
- The International Criminal Court is replacing Microsoft office software with OpenDesk after its chief prosecutor was locked out of Outlook[1:3]
- Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein state has moved 24,000 civil servants to open-source alternatives[1:4]
However, challenges remain. The acquisition of Dutch cloud provider Solvinity by US-based Kyndryl demonstrates how European alternatives can be undermined through foreign acquisition[1:5]. Critics also warn about “sovereignty washing,” where US hyperscalers market ‘sovereign cloud’ solutions that don’t resolve the fundamental legal conflicts[1:6].
I’d be grateful if my university ditched MS Outlook as their mail provider and went back the the self-managed solution. Outlook is simply annoying as fuck.
Agree, it has no technical reasons for not having European sovereignty, only political, bureaucratic reasons, ignorance and commodity that prevent it. There are plenty of good and even better alternatives to US big brother crap.
I cannot even use the email client I choose without their “permission”. C’mon… And don’t even let me start about the fucking Teams…