- Almost all computing is rapidly moving to the cloud, including parts like government systems that may need to remain under local control.
- Europe lacks any major 'hyperscaler' cloud providers and faces significant challenges in competing with giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, which offer both a wide range of services (like IKEA) and advanced technology (like Airbus).
- Replicating hyperscalers is nearly impossible due to their massive, integrated service catalogs and technological sophistication, on par with the difficulty of replicating Airbus's wide-body jets or ASML's advanced wafer steppers.
- Europe is 100% dependent on non-European clouds, with no credible alternative; legislation or government action alone cannot create a competitive cloud ecosystem.
- Despite the dominance of IKEA-like hyperscalers, there is a feasible niche for a European communication and collaboration cloud (e.g., email, calendaring), especially for government use, leveraging procurement laws that allow for sovereignty-focused criteria.
- Such a European cloud could start with government clients and potentially evolve into a broader, competitive cloud industry, similar to how Airbus was assembled from European components.