In 2025, significant progress was made in convincing stakeholders that Europe must reduce dependency on US cloud providers, but practical action remains lacking.
Governments and enterprises are bound to US clouds, with little incentive to change; IT procurement is disconnected from political policies.
European cloud providers are not offering competitive alternatives to AWS/Azure/Google; they focus on lower-end services.
The EuroStack initiative has been effective in raising awareness, but buyers and sellers are not moving.
The financial industry, regulated under DORA, may be forced to diversify cloud dependencies, potentially leading the way for governments.
No regret steps include regaining technical skills, reforming procurement, funding foundational software, and establishing digital commons services.
A broad coalition and long-term effort are needed to achieve meaningful change.