Germany Backs European Cloud Project to Avoid Dependence on U.S. Technology
September 24 2019 - 10:23AM
Dow Jones News
By Petra Sorge
BERLIN--The German government is pushing for the development of
a European digital cloud to counter the growing reach of Silicon
Valley's technology giants.
The project, named Gaia-X in reference to the Earth goddess in
Greek mythology, aims to create an alternative to U.S. digital
platforms.
It will connect smaller cloud providers via an open network and
is expected to be presented to the public at a digital summit at
the end of October.
"The question of data sovereignty is key for our
competitiveness," Germany's economy minister Peter Altmaier
said.
The majority of German businesses support Mr. Altmaier's
position. In a survey published by German digital-industry
association Eco earlier this month, 80% of managers and executives
polled said digital sovereignty was critical for their future
success.
Fears of industrial espionage have remained high in Europe since
leaks by the National Security Agency in 2013 demonstrated the
scope of U.S. surveillance. Germany's Economic Ministry is
convinced that "reliable data availability can only be ensured in
an infrastructure with security standards 'made in Europe'", a
spokesperson told Dow Jones Newswires.
The German initiative comes alongside efforts by the European
Commission to get a tighter grip on Google and other American
technology companies.
"It is not acceptable that they make profits, but they are
barely paying any taxes because they play our tax system," Ursula
von der Leyen, the Commission's president-elect, said in July. She
has also pledged to prioritize investment in artificial
intelligence and strengthen the EU's rules around digital
platforms.
Several German companies have joined Gaia-X. Deutsche Telekom AG
(DTE.XE) said it wants to "support the global network economy and
enable new, innovative business models". SAP SE (SAP.XE)--a major
provider of business software--said it welcomes "efforts to
contribute to Europe's digital empowerment".
German industrial giant Siemens AG (SIE.XE) has said the project
could help shield against China's efforts to build a digital
hegemony. Its participation is "a precautionary measure" and showed
"that there is indeed a decoupling" between Beijing and the West,
Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser said, shortly after returning from a trip
with Chancellor Angela Merkel to China in September.
With many German companies already involved, others on the
continent have been left wondering about their own participation.
No tenders have yet been published. A European Commission
spokesperson said "any such project of course will need to comply
with EU competition and public procurement rules where
applicable".
One interested onlooker is U.S.-based Mozilla Corp., whose
Foundation executive director Mark Surman sees Europe as "probably
the single greatest hope" when it comes to creating alternatives to
the U.S. tech giants.
"We want to continue to do more, work in more areas than just
the [Firefox] browser," he said, promising "to invest a lot" to
help Europe in building data-friendly digital companies.
However, torn between worries over data protection and the
economic need for powerful digital capacity, many German entities
have opted for the U.S. giants' services. A spokesperson for Amazon
Web Services said "we have tens of thousands of active customers"
in Germany, including more than 80% of the 30 leading companies on
the German stock market. Even the country's federal police chose
Amazon to store video recordings from body cameras, a decision
fiercely criticized by the government's data protection
officer.
Facebook Inc. (FB) declined to comment on the Gaia-X project. A
Google spokesperson stated that "we are looking forward to learning
more about it".
Expectations are building ahead of the project's public launch.
German newspaper Handelsblatt recently reported that planners are
hoping to bring Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) on board in the medium term.
The government declined to comment, and a Microsoft spokesperson
said the company had not yet been contacted.
"However, of course we speak to public authorities about
projects that could intersect with Gaia-X."
Write to Petra Sorge at petra.sorge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 24, 2019 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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