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CloudCamp4SMEs: How the EU is Funding Its Own Digital Colonization

2025-01-30

Here we go again: the European Commission is subsidising significant discounts (90%) on a cloud training scheme for SMEs, but as (sadly) expected, the courses focus heavily on AWS, with courses like "AWS Technical Essentials" and "Architecting on AWS" dominating the curriculum for Cloud Architects, Developers, and Security Engineers.

The sad reality is that, despite the EU’s ambition to strengthen European digital sovereignty, this initiative, CloudCamp4SMEs, subsidizes, with funding from the EU, training that locks participants into AWS technology.

This is a small, but revelatory example of scoring goals against our own team, undermining Europe’s efforts to promote open-source and European cloud alternatives. On a wider scale, this demands our immediate attention and a fundamental shift in our approach to digital policy.

The Illusion of Empowerment

CloudCamp4SMEs is presented as a helping hand to European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering them discounted training in cloud technologies. It promises to equip them with the skills needed to navigate the digital age and boost their competitiveness. However, a closer look reveals a far more insidious reality. This program, co-funded by the European Union, is effectively a gateway to AWS dependency. By offering training exclusively focused on AWS's proprietary services, it steers SMEs down a path of vendor lock-in, where they become reliant on a single, non-European provider for their critical digital infrastructure.

This is akin to a driving school offering "discounted" lessons exclusively on one brand of car, with unique controls and systems, leaving graduates unable to drive anything else. This is precisely what CloudCamp4SMEs does with cloud technologies. It creates a workforce skilled in AWS, but ill-equipped to navigate a diverse and competitive digital landscape.

The High Cost of "Discounted" Training

The so-called 90% discount offered by CloudCamp4SMEs is a deceptive marketing ploy. The true cost is far greater, measured not just in euros, but in the long-term dependence on a foreign tech giant. Once locked into the AWS ecosystem, SMEs will face significant barriers to switching providers, including the cost of retraining staff, migrating data, and adapting their infrastructure. This dependence will leave them vulnerable to price hikes, policy changes dictated from abroad, and potential conflicts with European regulations and values.

Furthermore, where is the logic in spending European taxpayer money to train European workers exclusively on American technologies? It's a blatant contradiction to our goal of fostering a strong, independent European digital economy. We are essentially subsidizing the growth of a non-European company while neglecting our own homegrown solutions.

The Open Source Alternative: A Path to True Sovereignty

The alternative to this path of dependency is clear: embrace open source technologies and foster a truly competitive European cloud market. Open source software offers transparency, flexibility, and interoperability. It allows businesses to tailor solutions to their specific needs, avoid vendor lock-in, and collaborate on building a shared digital infrastructure. By prioritizing open source training and development, we can empower European SMEs with the skills and tools they need to thrive in a truly independent digital ecosystem.

Instead of funneling resources towards AWS, we should be investing in European cloud providers and open source projects. We need training programs that teach the fundamentals of cloud computing (or digital tranformation, or AI, etc.), not just the specifics of one proprietary platform. We must cultivate a workforce that understands the principles of open source, interoperability, and data sovereignty, equipping them to navigate a diverse and dynamic digital ecosystem.

A Betrayal of European Values and Vision

The CloudCamp4SMEs initiative is not just a misguided policy; it's a betrayal of the values and vision that underpin the European project. It undermines our efforts to achieve digital sovereignty, strengthen our economy, and uphold our commitment to open standards, fair competition, and data protection. This program directly contradicts the principles outlined in the EuroStack Manifesto, which advocates for a digitally independent Europe built on open source, interoperability, and a commitment to European values.

By promoting AWS dominance, we are not only jeopardizing our economic future but also potentially compromising our security and privacy. Dependence on foreign tech giants creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited, leaving us susceptible to external influence and undermining our ability to control our own digital destiny.

Beyond Rational Arguments: A Culture of Technological Acquiescence

However, to truly understand the persistence of programs like CloudCamp4SMEs, we must go beyond the rational arguments for digital sovereignty and open source. We must confront the underlying cultural and political factors that have allowed this situation to fester. We are facing a subtle yet pervasive culture of technological acquiescence, a willingness to accept the dominance of US tech giants as an inevitable, even desirable, reality.

As Tariq Krim, founder of Netvibes and Jolicloud, recently wrote, there was a "consensus in favour of letting the US players flourish, because they were enabling governments, start-ups and large companies to have a digital strategy without having a lot of engineers." This approach, often masked under the banner of "digital transformation," has led to what he aptly describes as the "Googlization, Amazonification or Microsoftization of enterprise computing." And, disturbingly, he notes that our "political elites did not fight this state of affairs; on the contrary, they accelerated and celebrated it, because it gave them the veneer of modernity."

This acceptance of technological dependence is not merely a strategic misstep; it's a form of cultural and intellectual surrender. As JB Soufron, former General Secretary of the French Digital Council (CNNum), put it in 2020, awarding public contracts to these tech giants is a "case of cultural corruption: taking certain things for granted - in this case, the idea that Microsoft is necessarily more competent - because they appear to be easy solutions." This mindset, deeply ingrained in parts of our public institutions, undermines our ability to even conceive of, let alone build, a truly independent European digital ecosystem.

Reclaiming Our Digital Destiny: Recognizing European Talent

This cultural acceptance of foreign tech dominance has created a situation where, as Jean-Paul Smets, open source advocate and CEO of Nexedi, described it in 2021, we exhibit "all the hallmarks of a colonised country." He pointed out the painful reality that "a country's elite can no longer recognise the talents of their country." It is time to change this. The first battle, as Smets emphasizes, "is to get our elite to recognise our talent."

Europe is not lacking in talent or innovation. We have a rich history of technological breakthroughs, evidenced by collaborative successes like Airbus, Ariane, and CERN. We have a vibrant open source community and a growing number of innovative tech companies. The problem is not a lack of capability but a lack of belief in ourselves, a lack of recognition of our own potential. This self-deprecating mindset must be challenged and overturned. Our leaders must actively choose to champion European solutions, not as a matter of protectionism, but as a matter of strategic necessity and self-respect.

We must actively challenge the narrative that equates American tech dominance with inherent superiority. We must showcase and celebrate successful European tech initiatives, particularly in the open source space. We must highlight the risks of over-reliance on a few dominant players, emphasizing the importance of a diverse and competitive digital ecosystem for long-term economic and political independence.

Beyond CloudCamp4SMEs: Addressing the Root Causes

The CloudCamp4SMEs situation we have just described should not be regarded as an isolated incident, but a symptom of a deeper problem: a systemic bias within European institutions that favors established, often non-European, tech giants over homegrown solutions and open source alternatives. This bias stems from several factors:

  1. Lack of Awareness: There is be a lack of awareness among policymakers regarding the strategic importance of digital sovereignty and the benefits of open source technologies.
  2. Lobbying Influence: Powerful lobbying efforts by large tech companies unduly influence policy decisions, pushing for regulations and programs that benefit their interests.
  3. Perceived Simplicity: Opting for established players like AWS might seem like the simpler, more straightforward path, even if it comes at the cost of long-term independence.
  4. Short-Term Focus: There is a tendency to prioritize short-term gains and immediate results over long-term strategic goals, leading to decisions that undermine our digital sovereignty.
  5. Lack of Technical Expertise: A lack of in-depth technical expertise within policy-making circles hinders the ability to properly evaluate the implications of different technological choices. Most European policymakers are not engineers trained in Law and/or Political Sciences, and they often rely on external consultants, who often have their own biases and interests (unlike China, were most decision-makers are engineers).

These factors, intertwined and mutually reinforcing, create a formidable barrier to achieving genuine digital sovereignty. To rectify this, we need a fundamental shift in our approach. We must:

  • Promote Digital Literacy: Enhance digital literacy among policymakers, ensuring they understand the strategic importance of open source and digital sovereignty. At the highest level, hiring engineers and scientist at the top of the European Commission and European Parliament would be a good start.
  • Foster Transparency: Increase transparency in the decision-making process, making it more difficult for undue influence to sway policy.
  • Prioritize Long-Term Vision: Emphasize long-term strategic goals, such as digital independence and a thriving European tech ecosystem, over short-term gains.
  • Strengthen European Collaboration: Enhance collaboration between European institutions, industry, and the open source community to develop and implement policies that truly benefit Europe.
  • Invest in European Solutions: We must prioritize funding for research and development, leverage public procurement to actively support European open-source projects and cloud providers, and create incentives for businesses to adopt these solutions.

A Call to Action

The CloudCamp4SMEs initiative is more than just a misguided policy; it's a glaring symptom of a 25-year trend of Europe funding its own digital colonization. This program, and others like it, are not isolated incidents but manifestations of a deeply ingrained systemic issue that demands immediate and decisive action. We must break free from the culture of technological acquiescence and the illusion of empowerment offered by foreign tech giants, stop scoring goals against our own team, and actively choose to build a future where European businesses thrive, innovation flourishes, and our digital destiny is firmly in our own hands.

We urge European policymakers to immediately reconsider their support for programs that promote technologies that are actively undermining European autonomy. Instead, we must champion initiatives that foster open source, bolster European businesses, and pave the way for a truly independent and prosperous digital future. We mustn't allow our digital future to be outsourced! Let us reclaim our digital destiny, building it ourselves, together, on a foundation of European values, ingenuity, and an unwavering commitment to true digital sovereignty.

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