As an EU citizen, I have long hoped that big tech clouds would be banned by law. After receiving encouraging news from countries like Germany, where Microsoft 365 was banned in education, I thought this would spread across Europe like wildfire. Unfortunately, it seems to be less of a reality than I had hoped.
Despite more than occasional non-compliance with GDPR regulations, the adoption of big tech services is actually accelerating. Many organizations using these services are unaware of the risks, but vendor lock-in is lurking around the corner. It makes me feel that an exit strategy is being overlooked, as leaving such services can be a challenging step, and “not worth” the effort to think about. However, I firmly believe this remains the only viable path forward.
Trump’s recent threats to the entire world with devastating consequences have brought fear to Europe, but he also is going to offer us a tough lesson in our naive trust. At present, we lack a European alternative to American services, but there are growing voices urging for quick action on this matter. Within the EU, there are sufficient options to ensure data sovereignty.
The experience of hosting at such companies differs significantly from using big tech, presenting unique challenges. This is indeed an obstacle.
My hope now is that within the European defense and economics ministries or other relevant bodies, it becomes clear that our economy is threatened by the chaos on the other side of the big lake. However, Europe itself is not immune to this issue. It has been a problem for years, but in the coming time, we will be forced to confront reality hard. Will European governments have the courage, to make Trump more angry than he already is, by enforcing data sovereignty and a big tech cloud exit?
Here’s an interesting read from NOYB on the issue from the privacy perspective: (https://noyb.eu/en/us-cloud-soon-illegal-trump-punches-first-hole-eu-us-data-deal)