Gaia-X should become an interoperable European alternative to cloud services from IT giants such as Amazon, Alibaba, Google or Microsoft. But most of the Americans in particular immediately expressed interest in participating and are now all on board at least as partners and members of technical working groups.

At the two-day digital “Gaia-X Summit”, all representatives of the US corporations emphasized on Thursday that they play an important role in the European cloud initiative and that values ​​such as data protection, interoperability, trust, transparency and openness are clearly committed want to fully support free software.

“We believe in open source and an open cloud”, underlined Wieland Holfelder, head of Google’s Munich development center. Many customers are very concerned about a lock-in effect. The participation in Gaia-X will help to dispel these fears and to build the “next generation of the data infrastructure”. In addition to technical components, Google will provide easily implementable standards of behavior for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To enable “trustworthy data processing”, customers could save their cryptographic access codes outside of the cloud. Also in the interest of a stronger involvement with Gaia-X, the group has also agreed on a cooperation with the French provider OVHcloud.

“Natural partner” IBM Hillery Hunter, chief technologist of IBM’s cloud division, recommended her company as a “natural partner in the area of ​​digital sovereignty”. It has been investing in open source for over 20 years and took over the pioneer Red Hat last year. For them there is no question: “We have to ensure interoperability and avoid lock-in effects in order to support the export-oriented European economy.” Users should “have complete control over their data”.

Casper Klynge, Microsoft’s “Foreign Minister” in Europe, described Gaia-X as a “catalyst for a competitive European Economy”. Microsoft has long relied on partnerships with local providers with the exchange of know-how and share the vision of a free flow of data across borders. Microsoft respects European values ​​and rules and has supported the GDPR from the beginning.