DNS Belgium wants to get rid of AWS

Domain manager DNS Belgium is looking for a way out of the AWS cloud: “Our dependence has become unacceptable.”

Kristof Tuyteleer, CISO at DNS Belgium, was recently a guest on the Radio 1 podcast Het Uur van de Waarheid (The Hour of Truth). During a conversation about digital sovereignty, Tuyteleer remarked that he wants to put his money where his mouth is. “Our dependence on American clouds such as Microsoft or Amazon has really become total,” he said.

DNS Belgium is a non-profit that manages Belgian domain names ending in .be, .vlaanderen, and .brussels. Like many Belgian companies, the organization is in the AWS public cloud. Although Tuyteleer emphasizes that all customer data is located on European soil, this dependence still poses risks in the current geopolitical context.

He is assisted in this by computer expert Bert Hubert, who was also a guest on the podcast. “Fire, electricity and water companies, social institutions, virtually all hospitals, general practitioners and pharmacies all depend on American clouds. If those fail, all those institutions simply cannot perform their primary task,” said Hubert.

Looking for a European cloud

The exodus from AWS will not be possible overnight, but DNS Belgium is indeed preparing an exit plan. The domain manager is conducting a market analysis of European alternatives and wants to start the migration next year. Taking more control of the management itself is another avenue that Tuyteleers hints at in the conversation.

“Is it still responsible to partially relinquish parts of our critical infrastructure components, which must ensure a resilient Belgian society? We believe that we must reduce that risk,” says Tuyteleers.

DNS Belgium’s migration plans are illustrative of a changing perception of American technology in the European IT market. Many companies have become dependent on Microsoft, Google, or AWS over the years and are beginning to realize this. The switch was technically complex and expensive for a long time, but the Data Act, which has been in effect since September, offers a possible escape route.

The major cloud providers are trying to appease their European customers with local data centers and sovereign cloud services. At the same time, they admit that they can never guarantee full sovereignty on their own.