Long has remained in the shadow of digital giants like Amazon, Microsoft or Google, Europe becomes aware of its vulnerability in the strategic field of the cloud. Emerging initiatives to reduce this dependence.
In Europe, 80% of companies’ spending on professional digital software and services benefit American companies directly. According to a study Published in April 2025 by CIGREF, the IT club of large French companies, this represents around 264 billion euros per year.
The cloud market is now largely dominated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. But since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Antoine Coetsier, director of operations of exosciel – a cloud supplier based in Lausanne, who operates eight data centers in Europe – observes a renewed interest in European alternatives.
“We have seen the number of requests and requests on our website, especially on keywords like ‘European alternatives’ literally exploding,” he said on Tuesday in the program a whole world on RTS.
What if Washington decided to cut access?
Because the unpredictability of the American president frightens. In theory, he could order to take the plug and cut access to American digital services.
If Donald Trump demanded that Microsoft cuts his services, what would happen? What would they do?
“An often quoted example is that of the International Criminal Court of The Hague, which President Donald Trump qualified as an outlaw agency. The question is as follows: if he demanded that Microsoft cuts his services, what would happen? What would they do?”, Alert Cristina Caffarra, honorary professor at the University College in London.
According to her, the real problem lies in the fact that the “stop button” – the power to deactivate or degrade a digital service – is not in the hands of Europeans. “Who has power? It is not the Europeans,” she regrets.
When data protection escapes Europe
The question of data protection remains at the heart of concerns. Since the adoption of the Cloud Act in 2018, the American authorities can legally access data stored abroad, as soon as it is hosted by American companies. This concerns, for example, emails sent via outlook or shared files on Teams.
The aspect of sovereignty, we sat on it, completely!
If European companies continue to turn massively to American solutions, it is also out of habit. Giants like Microsoft or Google offer very complete service catalogs, which European players are unable to offer, according to Antoine Coetsier, director of operations of exoscale. “But on the other hand, yes, the aspect of sovereignty, we sat on it, completely!”, He adds.
Towards a credible European alternative
However, he believes that it is possible to build a credible European response by combining several providers. An approach which, according to him, would be less risky, because it would avoid depending on only one supplier.
Cristina Caffarra is very involved in the Eurostack collective, a European approach to build a real alternative and prevent Europe from becoming a “digital colony”. For her, digital sovereignty will be able to materialize in particular thanks to binding measures. In particular, it proposes that, by 2030, at least 50% of public purchases in digital technology is reserved for European solutions.
Radio subject: Mathilde Salamin
Adaptation web: Miroslav Mares
