October 31, 2025
Cloud divorce gets messy
Another European agency shifts off US Tech as digital sovereignty gains steam
Austria brings data home: cheers, side‑eye, and “can EU clouds keep up?”
TLDR: Austria moved 1,200 workers to a local, open‑source cloud to keep sensitive data at home, fueling Europe’s push to rely less on U.S. tech. Commenters clash: sovereignty fans cheer security and control, while skeptics question EU providers’ features and investors hunt winners—making this a high‑stakes shift for Europe’s tech future.
Austria just moved 1,200 staff off Big Tech and onto a homegrown, open‑source setup with Nextcloud hosted on Austrian servers—and the timing (right after an Azure mega‑outage) has the comments section yelling “called it.” Fans of digital independence are giddy: one user says ditching U.S. platforms means safer data and possibly lower support costs. Another cheers that this isn’t sci‑fi: “VMs and databases aren’t rocket science.”
But the drama is thick. The investor crowd is nosy: “Which European cloud stocks win from this?” asks one commenter, only to roast local options like IONOS (“let it rot?”) and side‑eye OVH for clunky tools. The sovereignty camp claps back hard: a top‑liked take claims relying on U.S. tech is risky because “access could vanish overnight on a political whim.” That line became the thread’s meme—“Overnight on a Whim Ops”—with folks joking about companies making “Plan B: Bring it Back Home” slide decks.
Meanwhile, optimists want receipts: one commenter asks for a live scoreboard tracking every city and ministry jumping ship, as Europe’s EuroStack push (“Buy European, Sell European, Fund European”) gains buzz. Bottom line: the crowd is split between “Finally, freedom!” and “Cool story, but can EU clouds match features?” Either way, the vibe is: Europe’s breakup with Big Tech just got real.
Key Points
- •Austria’s Ministry of Economy migrated 1,200 employees to a Nextcloud-based platform hosted on Austrian infrastructure.
- •The move aims at digital sovereignty and reduces reliance on proprietary, foreign-owned services like Microsoft 365.
- •European companies formed the EuroStack Initiative to coordinate action under “Buy European, Sell European, Fund European.”
- •CISO Florian Zinnagl cited the need to protect sensitive data as the motive for avoiding non-European cloud solutions.
- •Similar transitions are occurring in Europe, including Schleswig-Holstein, the Austrian military, and Danish government organizations.