Dutch companies unite against US cloud providers in fight for digital sovereignty
Seven Dutch cloud service providers have signed an agreement aimed at strengthening their position against American cloud giants in competition for government contracts.
Centric, KPN, Info Support, Intermax, Nebul, Previder, and Uniserver signed a landmark agreement that, among other things, involves a pledge to adopt the same open-source standards, according to a Tweakers report that Cybernews machine translated.
The agreement aims to prevent vendor lock-in and make it easier for Dutch cloud service providers to win larger contracts that require multiple suppliers.
It seeks to enshrine a clause in contracts stating that if one of the providers is acquired by a company from outside Europe, the others will take over its role to ensure that data remains in European hands.
In addition, the agreement aims to step up collaboration in other areas, such as jointly developing new applications.
The initiative comes as European countries ramp up their efforts to achieve digital independence from the US.
Cloud services are a particularly painful issue, as three American giants – Google, Amazon, and Microsoft – account for about 70% of the European cloud market.
The Netherlands is no exception, as 67% of Dutch government agencies, healthcare institutions, schools, and vital businesses are linked to at least one American cloud service, according to a 2025 survey.
Is the European Sovereign Cloud a solution?
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security removed a report on the risks of Amazon’s “European Sovereign Cloud” (ESC) service shortly after publishing in February 2026.
The report attracted fierce criticism, with experts saying it underestimated the ESC’s dangers and illustrated the government’s “tunnel vision” for US technology, according to NL Times.
Amazon says the ESC, launched in early 2026, is an independent cloud for Europe, designed to help public sector organizations and customers meet their “evolving sovereignty and compliance needs.”
The service is hosted on European soil and is run and managed by European residents.
Critics, however, say that it doesn’t matter where data centers are located, because the company is still owned by Amazon. The 2018 CLOUD Act enables US authorities to access users’ data held elsewhere.
The Ministry later republished the research, accompanied by a memo stating that it is not a technical report but “a legal investigation.”
Dutch technology companies told parliament earlier this year that they can replace 80% of US services for storage, software, and email systems in the country.
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