- Europe excels at lower cloud stack (hardware, networking, OS) but lacks advanced, business-ready cloud services that companies demand.
- Proposed European Cloud Modules involve cooperative, well-funded efforts to uplift open-source software with features like billing, compliance, observability, and management interfaces.
- Key missing services include S3, SQS, IAM, Cognito, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, and reliable email/notifications.
- Successful cloud modules require millions in funding from European industry, not small donations, to attract full-time talent.
- Unlike US clouds that aim for vendor lock-in, European Cloud Modules should be interoperable and allow customers to run services themselves or switch providers.
- Cooperation among European companies is essential; individual efforts to clone AWS will fail, but collective open-source investment can succeed.
- Governments can help as lighthouse customers and through legislation requiring European clouds for sensitive data.