The European Commission is considering moving its cloud environment from Microsoft to a local provider. OHVCloud is mentioned as the main candidate.
Sovereignty is high on the political agenda of European institutions, but so far it remains mostly words and little action. The European Commission now appears to be taking action. Euractiv has learned from several closely placed sources that the Commission would like to leave the Microsoft cloud and move to a local provider.
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OHVCloud in Pole Position
A party explicitly mentioned as a new cloud destination for the European Commission is the French OHVCloud. Chairman Octave Klaba seemed to confirm this briefly via social media, but the post was quickly removed. OHVCloud already provides cloud services for European institutions today and seems to be one of the few local cloud providers that can compete with Microsoft at scale.
According to Euractiv, OHVCloud is not the exclusive candidate on the Commission’s list. Ionos from Germany, Italian Aruba, and fellow countryman Scaleway are other possible options. The European Commission might choose to put its eggs in several local baskets. Beyond saying that “negotiations are ongoing”, OHVCloud doesn’t want to disclose more.
A move from Microsoft to a local cloud provider would fit within the EuroStack initiative, which aims to reduce dependence on “foreign” technology by stimulating the European cloud ecosystem. With this move, the European Commission would give that initiative a serious boost. The Commission is also not revealing much for now: “We are constantly scanning the market”, is the only response Euractiv could elicit.
The only one firmly denying everything is, of course, Microsoft. The cloud giant recently expanded its sovereign cloud offering to appease the European market. It won’t let a big customer like the European Commission leave easily. “We will ensure that the European Commission and our other European customers have the options and guarantees they need to work with confidence”, it tells The Register.
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