France, Germany back European Cloud Computing Model ‘GAIA-X’ in a bid to promote tech sovereignty

France and Germany have joined hands to create a cloud computing ecosystem that seeks to reduce their dependency on US tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. The project, entitled Gaia-X, aims to establish common standards for storing and processing data on servers that are sited locally and comply with European Union laws of Data Privacy.

The prototype of the project will go live sometime at the beginning of next year. It will be available to users in Europe as well as users outside Europe, to those who follow European Laws. Gaia-X will not be a cloud service itself, rather it will be a platform where cloud-hosting service will be able to collaborate. This will allow businesses to move their data freely with all information protected under Europe’s strict data processing rules.

Germany Economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, described Gaia-X as a “moonshot” that would help reassert Europe’s technological sovereignty and invited other countries and companies to join. In a joint press conference between France and Germany, the French Minister said

We are not China, we are not the United States, we are European countries with our own values and with our own economic interest that we want to defend.

The Covid-19 crisis has shown how dependent we are on tech companies and Germany and France believe the cloud computing project “could not have been more timely”. The project initiative comes at a time when both France and Germany are trying to nullify the impact of coronavirus.

In the initial phase, about 22 companies are on-board with the governments to set up a non-profit foundation to run Gaia-X. Everyone who wants to join Gaia-X will have to respect and satisfy several sets of rules, including interoperability and data migration. This is one of the key features of the project that it’ll allow users to switch providers easily.

First services are due in 2021, and we don’t know how this will turn out. On one side, it lessens their dependence on the companies outside the European Union, but on the other hand, will the providers switch to a new platform instead of a renowned platform they already use? Altmaier believes the project’s success “will be crucial for Germany, for France and for Europe as far as our economic strength, our competitively, and our sovereignty are concerned.”