European cloud providers play the sovereign card

The CLOUD act, enacted in 2018, allows US authorities to compel technology companies based in the US to provide them with data stored on their servers anywhere in the world.

The law meant that any European or UK company using US-based tech service-providers have lived with the possibility that their data may be accessed by US authorities. Whether simple file storage, SaaS application, or any use of the thousands of variations of computing services offered by US companies, data could be handed over to US federal law enforcement authorities.

During the period of entente cordiale between Europe and the US that’s existed since the beginning of the 20th century, it was difficult to imagine how such an extra-national law may have had negative ramifications for any non-American company that was operating legally and in good faith.

But the first few months of the Trump presidency have strained, if not fractured much of the century-long spirit of co-operation between the US and many European countries.

That change in tenor was a notable theme at Gitex, Berlin, held last month – not so much in the subjects covered in the speeches and keynotes on the stages dotted across the sprawling show floor, but rather in the messages given in other ways by companies on the show floor.

Even the relentless focus on-all-things AI was challenged by the common presence of the words like “sovereign” and “private” in the banners, printed materials, and rhetoric of exhibitors.

Europe is slow to move politically and economically, but EU companies seem notably driven in 2025 to emphasise technology and services that are based on the continent and are therefore at least partly immune from events happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

Since its inception, the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) law was, and continues to be, regarded as being in conflict with EU legislation like the GDPR. It’s not difficult to imagine the legal bun-fight that would ensue if US authorities seek to access data concerning European citizens or entities protected by the GDPR. CLOUD is not unique: China has enacted a similarly extra-national law allowing it to pursue data held by Chinese companies anywhere on the globe.

This type of national law that extends tendrils to affect non-domestic organisations is largely untested in practice, at least in legislation covering digital information. There are have been no legal proceedings that pitch CLOUD vs. GDPR to date.

Yet it’s undeniable that organisations in the EU are looking for alternatives to the ‘traditional’ computing cloud services, and one motivation seems to be the desire to avoid expensive legal conflicts were the two laws to collide. That motivation is joined by a palpable concern over data privacy, distaste for the current US administration’s political flavour, and despair of the “shareholder-first, end-user last” ethos that has accelerated in the US big tech mindset.

At the heart of the calls for regeneration of Europe first-technologies is the business tenets of stability, predictability, and trust. These are aspects of trade damaged by mercurial executive pronouncements of dubious domestic legality, and tech bros associated with social media companies given carte blanche to access data in highly sensitive US government databases. There is a great deal happening in the US that undermines the long-held faith that business can go on as usual – at least, for the next four years.

Some companies on the Gitex show floor were presenting services specifically designed for and marketed to be alternatives to US platforms, and several, such as Cloud-Network.ai that were at the show to offer data migration services for EU organisations concerned about data oversight and governance.

Being a Europe-based expo, there was strong showing by the likes of Ionos and NextCloud, plus, dozens of smaller outfits offering alternatives to the go-to choices for email, intranet, bug-tracking, XaaS, storage, data processing and, of course, AI.

The technology industry, like many sectors, tries to be as apolitical as possible, preferring to concern itself with operational matters and the business of technology. But Europe has woken up to the dominance of US companies in the technological underpinnings of commerce in the West. When extraordinary events in America affect the everyday on the European continent, even the behemoth that is Europe is shaken from its slumbers.

(Image: cloud-network.ai)

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