Time to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty
With everything going on in the world at the moment, we’ve found ourselves thinking—and writing—a lot about privacy, transparency, and democratic values and what we must do to protect them.
Here’s a list of things we at factor10 believe are important for European companies to do right now, and links to articles and webpages we think might be interesting and helpful for anyone sharing our values and looking to take action.
Empower Europe’s digital infrastructure
We at factor10 are proud to support EuroStack, a broad independent initiative bringing together tech, governance and funding to push and empower the European Commission to establish a sovereign, open, and sustainable digital infrastructure for Europe. One that aligns with European values such as privacy, inclusivity, and democratic governance.
You can read more about the Eurostack and the open letter to the leadership of the European Commission here. To keep updated on any developments, you can also follow the Eurostack initiative on LinkedIn.
Move custom core systems to EU clouds
If you are responsible for your (European) company’s core system and looking to move it from a US cloud to a European one, we think you’ll find these two articles helpful:
Feeling trapped in a US cloud?—It’s time to take action
In this article, Jimmy Nilsson provides guidance on the steps needed to analyze your specific situation and a checklist for possible initial actions.
Feeling trapped in a US cloud? —Common modernisation pitfalls
In this article, Jimmy Nilsson focuses on common pitfalls to avoid when investigating how to execute the transfer to a new runtime environment.
Move your data to EU clouds
Given the current circumstances in the US, putting your business data in the hands of Google, Amazon, Microsoft or any other US-based provider is a pretty bad idea right now, and soon it will probably also be illegal. The agreement that makes it legal to store personal data with US-based suppliers will be tested in the European Court of Justice on 1 April 2025. Similar agreements have not held up when tested by the court and there’s nothing to suggest it will be different this time. If you are worried about where your data really lives, you might find this article interesting:
It’s all servers in the end
In this article, Raniz highlights the importance of building on open standards and portable architectures to avoid deep lock-in with US cloud providers.
The time to act is now
European values like privacy, transparency, and democratic control are under threat in the digital space. Whether you're a developer, a decision-maker, or a concerned citizen, you have a role to play. Move your systems, move your data, and support the initiatives working to build a European tech ecosystem we can trust.