Dutch cloud pioneers face the onerous limits of digital sovereignty

When Dutch internet hosting supplier mijn.host launched what it claimed was “one of many Netherlands’ first digitally sovereign public clouds” late final yr, it struck a chord with a rising European nervousness.

Constructed completely on open supply Apache CloudStack expertise and hosted completely inside Dutch borders, the platform promised companies a real various to American cloud giants amid rising geopolitical tensions. 

But based on unbiased ICT skilled Bert Hubert, such initiatives, whereas admirable, signify little greater than digital window dressing.

“These are fairly appropriate in case you’re a pigeon racing affiliation and need to put your pigeon racing affiliation web site there,” he stated. “However in case you come alongside saying, ‘I’m Rabobank and I need to outsource my banking operations to you’, you’re not going to have interaction with a internet hosting supplier that claims, ‘We’ve got a proposal for €5 per thirty days’.” 

The cruel evaluation displays a broader actuality going through Europe’s digital sovereignty ambitions: the chasm between political rhetoric and technological functionality has by no means been wider.

As American cloud suppliers resembling AWS announce new European entities claiming sovereign operations, the query turns into whether or not Europe’s homegrown options can ever bridge the hole between aspiration and enterprise-grade actuality. 

Scale issues greater than sovereignty 

Hubert’s criticism cuts to the guts of the European cloud dilemma. Whereas the Netherlands hosts a number of credible suppliers – notably LeaseWeb, which generates round €235m in annual income and operates greater than 80,000 servers – they excel primarily in infrastructure fundamentals quite than the subtle companies fashionable companies demand.

“Conventional Dutch and European internet hosting firms have been glorious on the backside layers, even among the many world’s greatest,” Hubert stated. “However when you need to hire a database as an alternative of a server, it shortly turns into: ‘We will organize that, however you’ll have to name.’ In the meantime, American suppliers supply instantaneous entry with a single click on.” 

Hubert described this hole as a “cloud ladder” of complexity. Whereas European suppliers excel on the foundational layers – fundamental compute and storage – they wrestle at greater ranges of the stack, the place hyperscalers supply built-in companies resembling databases, AI platforms, and orchestration instruments.

“European companies are promoting timber,” he added, “when clients need ready-made furnishings.” 

Marijn Vlug, founding father of mijn.host, acknowledged these limitations with refreshing candour: “A totally fledged various to Amazon or Microsoft? That doesn’t exist right here but. Constructing one thing like that takes years, not months.”

His firm, serving 25,000 clients since 2016, embodies the entrepreneurial spirit driving Dutch cloud initiatives, whereas additionally highlighting the constraints it faces. 

The open supply query

Vlug’s dedication to open-source expertise displays a broader perception amongst European sovereignty advocates that transparency is equal to independence.

“Open supply is the one actual method to see the place your information stands and the way it’s managed,” he stated. This philosophy underpins a lot of the European strategy to digital sovereignty, from Europe’s GAIA-X initiative to particular person nationwide methods. 

But Hubert supplies essential context on the function of open supply in European collaboration: “Open supply shouldn’t be the answer itself, however I can assure that if you wish to collaborate to construct one thing stunning and also you don’t do it open supply, then you definitely’ll be coping with attorneys till 2040 to rearrange that collaboration.”

He factors to an ironic instance: regardless of being fierce opponents, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle, and Apple all collaborate on Linux growth, which then powers their respective cloud platforms.  This collaborative potential may theoretically allow European sovereignty, permitting a whole lot of firms to supply standardised companies whereas sustaining aggressive differentiation.

“We’ve got all these separate skills right here in Europe,” Hubert stated. “They might work collectively to say: ‘We additionally need to have the ability to supply a database within the cloud’.” 

Political momentum falters 

But the promise of European collaboration more and more seems to be wishful pondering as political realities intrude. The Netherlands’ digital sovereignty agenda, as soon as championed by state secretary for digitalisation Zsolt Szabó, successfully stalled with the federal government’s collapse in early June 2025.

Based on Hubert, Szabó’s promised Nationwide Digitalisation Technique contained “little or no concrete steering” and resembled “normal statements about how essential the cloud and the Netherlands are” quite than actionable coverage. 

The Parliamentary initiative Clouds on the Horizon, which aimed to have at the very least 30% of presidency cloud companies hosted by European suppliers by 2029, now hangs in limbo. Extra troubling for sovereignty advocates, Szabó had resisted requires necessary quotas, preferring voluntary measures that specialists argue will perpetuate the established order.

Hubert and others word that governments themselves are large cloud clients and will create a wholesome market just by shopping for European merchandise and operating tenders that European suppliers may win. “Proper now, anybody who shouldn’t be Microsoft has a really onerous time getting authorities enterprise, which isn’t useful,” added Hubert.  

The stakes of continued American dependence grew to become tangible when Microsoft blocked the Worldwide Legal Court docket prosecutor’s e mail account, although the precise circumstances stay unclear. For Haroon Sheikh, senior researcher on the Dutch Scientific Council for Authorities Coverage (WRR) and professor at VU, such incidents illustrate how American tech giants finally function below American jurisdiction no matter the place their European information centres are positioned. 

“We make ourselves very simply blackmailable,” Sheikh warned. “On this grim geopolitical world, these sorts of dangers will solely get greater if we don’t management a big a part of the worth chain ourselves.”

Maybe extra insidiously, dependency creates behavioural modifications even earlier than direct intervention happens. “If you understand somebody would possibly have a look at your cellphone, you ship totally different WhatsApp messages,” Hubert stated. “The mere risk of American interference influences coverage choices, creating what quantities to anticipatory compliance with overseas pursuits.” 

American cloud suppliers haven’t ignored European sovereignty considerations. AWS just lately introduced plans for a completely European entity, whereas Oracle promotes its ‘sovereign cloud’ choices throughout the continent. But sovereignty specialists stay sceptical in regards to the real independence of such initiatives. 

“So long as an organization nonetheless has headquarters in America, they fall below the jurisdiction of the American authorities,” Sheikh defined. “And particularly the present American authorities can drive a whole lot of issues.” This authorized actuality signifies that European subsidiaries of American firms supply restricted safety in opposition to claims of extraterritorial jurisdiction. 

Financial actuality bites 

For firms like mijn.host, the trail ahead entails gradual functionality constructing quite than revolutionary breakthroughs. Vlug outlines plans to increase companies, together with object storage and managed Kubernetes, recognising that “a number of years is practical” for creating severe options. But he additionally acknowledged that European collaboration would possibly show simpler than particular person nationwide efforts. 

The problem extends past expertise to economics. Because the Dutch competitors authority notes, European suppliers wrestle in opposition to “the overwhelming scale that hyperscalers have for investments in renewing their cloud companies and underlying infrastructure”. The ensuing service choices from American giants stay “superior when it comes to comprehensiveness”. 

Transferring past particular person initiatives – whether or not new ventures like mijn.host, established gamers resembling LeaseWeb, or company options like Lidl’s StackIt cloud division – Europe is actively pursuing broader efforts to cut back its digital dependence and foster better autonomy.  

A key idea gaining traction is the EuroStack, a imaginative and prescient for a European-owned and operated expertise stack. It goals to be the important thing to the European Union’s digital sovereignty and self-determination, advocating for enhanced collaboration amongst main firms, scientists, policymakers, and civil society. 

Sheikh is a key contributor to the EuroStack imaginative and prescient. He emphasised that the cloud is probably Europe’s “best Achilles’ heel,” the place its place is weakest, thus requiring essentially the most concerted effort in the direction of sovereignty. Sheikh’s work, together with his guide Atlas of the Digital World, describes a shift in the direction of a “vertical world order” the place digital layers (uncooked supplies, chips, networks, cloud, intelligence, functions, linked units) are globally interconnected, making it essential to grasp dependencies at every layer. 

But translating this imaginative and prescient into motion faces institutional inertia that has continued regardless of rising consciousness of dependency dangers.

“We haven’t had sufficient creativeness in digital coverage in Europe,” Sheikh stated. He envisions coordinated funding the place “KPN, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica all cooperate and make investments a number of billion every, with all European governments as first clients”.

Past wishful pondering 

As geopolitical tensions escalate and American digital dominance deepens, Europe’s digital sovereignty ambitions face a pivotal second. Initiatives resembling mijn.host display entrepreneurial dedication and technical competence, however additionally they spotlight the big hole between present capabilities and real independence from American cloud infrastructure. 

Sheikh’s warning carries urgency contemplating political instability throughout Europe: “We should be quick in taking motion. I hope the strain from the Trump administration creates a way of urgency.” But with Dutch sovereignty plans frozen and European collaboration remaining extra aspiration than actuality, the window for decisive motion could also be narrowing. 

The expertise exists, Hubert confirmed, and European experience stays world-class at infrastructure ranges. However translating these strengths into complete cloud options requires sustained political dedication and coordinated funding that present fragmented efforts can not present. Till Europe strikes past pilot initiatives to real scale, digital sovereignty will stay an costly aspiration quite than a strategic actuality. 

For now, firms searching for options to American cloud suppliers can select between restricted European choices that meet fundamental wants and complete American platforms that outline business requirements. As mijn.host and related initiatives display, the previous can work for particular use instances. However for enterprise-grade necessities that decide aggressive benefit, the latter stays the one viable alternative, sovereignty aspirations however.