Federal Cartel Office warns: Cloud giants are endangering Europe's digital sovereignty!

Federal Cartel Office warns: Cloud giants are endangering Europe's digital sovereignty!

In times when digital services are more central than ever, the Federal Cartel Office has set its sights on cloud providers. How Palatinate Express reports, giants such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure are under scrutiny. President Andreas Mundt has expressed clear concerns: the power of these companies could continue to grow through the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI).

A central concern of the authority is the investigation of lock-in effects. Mundt emphasizes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for customers to switch between cloud providers. This dependency could have a strong impact on the competitive environment and thus endanger Europe's digital sovereignty. The President of the Cartel Office sounds concerned and calls for a rethink: “We need our own digital ecosystem in Europe,” he clarifies. And indeed: European integration into digital dependencies is a topic that is increasingly dominating the public debate.

Challenges for digital sovereignty

What is also interesting is that the challenges for cloud providers are not limited to national terrain. How IT specialist portal notes, regulation of the digital industry could affect not only competition but also geopolitical influences. The economy's current dependence on these large providers not only promotes market power, but could also affect resilience in times of crisis.

The demand for an independent, European cloud ecosystem is becoming increasingly urgent. Especially in view of the geopolitical upheavals, it is important that Europe develops its own sovereign cloud solutions. Loud PwC There is already a binding catalog of requirements for cloud providers that provides guidance on technical, organizational and legal features. This document is intended to help pave the way to a sovereign cloud.

Regulations as a guide

In order to further strengthen digital sovereignty, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) considers it necessary to further develop existing measures. There are already extensive European regulations in the area of ​​cybersecurity, including NIS 2, the Digital Markets Act and the Cyber ​​Resilience Act. Although these regulations already address certain aspects of cloud sovereignty, the development of specific regulations could become even more important.

A significant signal regarding cloud sovereignty is the criteria catalog for cloud computing (BSI C5). With instruments like this and the “European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services” (EUCS), which is in its final phase, providers are encouraged to invest more in the topic in the future. These measures ultimately help the private and public sectors benefit from secure and sovereign cloud solutions.

As you can see, the prospects for cloud providers in Germany are anything but rosy. Developments will continue to be closely monitored and it remains to be seen how the situation will develop in the coming months. One thing is clear: there is something going on!