Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native
by jamesblonde on 1/31/2026, 10:34:07 AM
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/30/euro_firms_must_ditch_us/
Comments
by: kioku
> This isn't just compliance theater; it's a straight‑up national economic security play.<p>The woes of LLM contrasts…<p>In all seriousness, the points made ring true not only for European companies and should make everyone consider the implications of the current situation, as dreary as they are.
1/31/2026, 12:13:17 PM
by: 202508042147
Last week I migrated our db away from AWS RDS to a European cloud provider. Everything runs fine and we also have it cheaper!<p>One of our domains is due for renewal in a couple of months. I'm setting up the transfer to a EU registrar for it next week.<p>This all takes time and it's not the most important thing for the bottom line, but on the long run I'm sure I'll look back and say it was a great investment.
1/31/2026, 12:24:53 PM
by: adrianN
I kind of share the opinion of the FSF Europe that it is less important where software comes from compared to whether it’s libre, but for cloud hardware I really hope that we manage to create competitive European offerings. Maybe we’re lucky and this European initiative will produce more than five Fraunhofer institutes and a gift to SAP.
1/31/2026, 11:33:40 AM
by: ArtTimeInvestor
Can Europe build AI datacenters though?<p>Europe has no wafer production and no companies that produce GPUs.<p>That means it is dependent on Taiwan for wafers and the USA for GPU design.<p>Then there is the question wether there is a will to invest. Gemini gives me this list of publicly traded companies in the US and what they invested in AI infrastructure in 2025:<p><pre><code> Amazon: $100B Alphabet: $90B Microsoft: $80B Meta: $70B Tesla: $20B </code></pre> For Europe, I get this list:<p><pre><code> Deutsche Telekom: $1B</code></pre>
1/31/2026, 12:15:59 PM
by: abc123abc123
This already happened. Hetzner, OVH, and countless other local cloud companies exist. It is only the path of least resistancd and market inertia, that stops companies from switching.<p>I run on Hetzner and am saving big bucks compared to the ridiculously high priced AWS.
1/31/2026, 11:59:59 AM
by: nullsanity
I think reductionist opinions about the "Free market" and price competition being the only factor are naive. Culture and trust are major components of a project, and cultural sensibilities and development culture can be a part of procurement decisions.<p>I worked for a company that chose Tresorit over any other option because it gave them Data Sovereignty, E2E encryption, and most important, it was not American.<p>There is intrinsic value in being "Not made in America" and data sovereignty is a major issue for a lot of organizations. Just as an American company would be concerned about storing their data in China, the rest of the world is/should be concerned about storing their data in the US.
1/31/2026, 12:05:48 PM
by: 202508042147
As a European, I am glad that this is finally discussed in the open! I have made multiple comments in the last weeks that one of the most important things, for me, is an alternative to the Visa/Mastercard duopoly. And yes, I can use an app to pay, but whenever I rent a car or purchase something online, I still use one of these two American companies. Why isn't the European Commission mandating these app payments in different EU countries to connect with each other? Wouldn't that go faster than the digital euro, that is set to come no earlier than 2029?
1/31/2026, 12:18:00 PM
by: niemandhier
For most medium sized business or government agencies, the main reason for cloud providers is that you don’t need the in-house skill.<p>You can replicate most of their offerings for that target group with open source stuff easy enough, but you will need people to maintain that and those are more expensive.
1/31/2026, 12:33:36 PM
by: antirez
To really understand how complicated is this matter, put into the mix that <i>before AI</i> in Europe there was no shortage of knowledge to have all our cloud services (to the point that a decent part of key infrastructure software is developed in Europe or mainly by Europeans), social networks, ..., but yet it was never strongly wanted. To reach this point, something is really odd with the current US-EU tensions.
1/31/2026, 12:30:43 PM
by: barnacs
As if the surveillance and regulation by the unelected EU bureaucrats was any better for the European citizens...
1/31/2026, 12:08:18 PM
by: hunglee2
The time for Great Firewall of Europe was 2005, when Friendster, Skype, Xing were still a thing. Probably too late now but effort still needs to be made. One upside of a sovereign European Internet is an ecosystem which may sustain thousands of well paying jobs
1/31/2026, 12:32:26 PM
by: debugnik
> 61 percent of European CIOs and tech leaders say they want to increase their use of local cloud providers.<p>Oof, the company I work for is proudly telling us we've just migrated from a local provider to Azure, and partnered with Google for "digital sovereignty" solutions. Glad to know that's not the trend everywhere.
1/31/2026, 12:12:26 PM
by: alansaber
can't wait for my european incorporated company to run on my european cloud servers so I can run my european language models (which will run inference on european english)
1/31/2026, 12:32:07 PM
by: BSDobelix
It's called the Cloud Act. If your business wants to keep its production secrets and personal data safe, think again. This has nothing to do with Trump.<p>Don't fall for the trick of using an AWS EU sovereignty cloud. Amazon is US-based and falls under the Cloud Act. Don't be tricked.
1/31/2026, 12:27:35 PM
by: willtemperley
This poses a fundamental problem for many SaaS providers. How can you guarantee client data aren't sent across the pond when all the app state is held server-side?<p>The answer is obvious with native apps, where it's standard practice to provide server endpoint details, so client-verified data locality is simple.<p>I don't really know how this is practically possible in SaaS web apps.
1/31/2026, 11:51:30 AM
by: andersa
This will happen automatically once an EU native cloud <i>exists</i> with comparable pricing. Get on it. No one will pay 10x to store data in Europe.
1/31/2026, 11:45:24 AM
by: iLoveOncall
Europe will never have competitive offerings until they pay their employees the equivalent of what FAANGs pay.<p>If you work for GCP or AWS in Europe, you'll easily get twice as much income as if you do the exact same job for Hetzner or OVH.<p>You can't build equivalents to GCP and AWS without paying the same. I work for a FAANG right now in Europe and I wouldn't consider even a single second any European cloud provider as potential employers.
1/31/2026, 11:52:30 AM
by: carlosjobim
I see this differently.<p>For European citizens and companies the safest option will always be to have their data in the USA or anywhere where European rulers cannot touch it.<p>The same for Americans, their data should be safest far away from their government.
1/31/2026, 12:17:19 PM
by: bell-cot
Yes, nice, true.<p>But sadly, it feels like pigs will be singing Handel's <i>Messiah</i> before Europe's leaders get off their fat asses and actually <i>do</i> anything about their problems.
1/31/2026, 11:34:20 AM
by: sunshine-o
If Europe wants to reach digital independence it really has to look at thew big picture.<p>1. European banks mostly sell debt and Nasdaq/Magnificent 7 stocks to their clients. This is what EU citizen invest in.<p>2. Data centers run on semiconductors made in Asia and cheap energy. Software is almost "the easy part".<p>3. The whole migration to "the Cloud" (aka MS/AWS/Google), CAPEX to OPEX transition during the ZIRP era was a scam sold by the same ruling class that now tell you need to revert to the previous model.<p>4. Human capital has to be considered. Having big consulting shops making banks on exploiting foreigners is not a sustainable path to build digital independence (see the content of the recent trade deal with India).
1/31/2026, 12:14:51 PM
by: alecco
Sadly the EU leadership is a bunch of professional bureaucrats living in a comfy bubble completely disconnected with the people or reality.
1/31/2026, 12:05:14 PM
by: jgbuddy
Thus is probably more about the EU having access to eu data than not having the US have access to EU data. Also it’s not like it’s impossible to encrypt things when you store them? This article is more political than logical or technical, it’s unfortunate that government control / intervention in the free market to this degree can be spun into something positive.
1/31/2026, 11:38:53 AM
by: llmthrow0827
EU countries are just vassal states of the USA in practice, anyway. If Uncle Sam wants that data, he's getting it, either by asking politely or by taking it. And the EU countries can't and won't retaliate.
1/31/2026, 12:31:58 PM