These American companies control 60% of the global cloud infrastructure market: Microsoft and its Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon AWS, a providential sector in the globalized and permanently connected world in which we live. And very lucrative: in 2025 revenues exceeded $400 billion, according to Synergy Researchthis is nine times more than in 2017.
There are no corporations capable of overshadowing these three, so seven Dutch cloud services companies they have made a decision: unite to be a real alternative to American big tech. The movement is more important than it seems: it is an organized response to such dependency that it is already considered a strategic risk.
The project: Open Cloud Alliance. The answer is Open Cloud Alliantie, a conglomerate formed by Centric, KPN, Info Support, Intermax, Nebul, Previder and Uniserver, with a joint turnover of 2.5 billion euros annually. In their manifesto they explain that they are creating jobs in the Netherlands and that both companies and those who work in them pay taxes there.
As explains Ludo BaauwCEO of the Intermax Group to NRC, separately they are competitive and their reason for being is not to set prices, but to bid for public contracts: “I would prefer a competitor from the Netherlands to win rather than a large American technology company.” There was a trigger to join: the possible sale of Solvinity, provider of cloud services for the Dutch government’s Digid digital identity system, to the American company Kyndryl. The agreement is pending approval by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, but it has already had consequences.
A strategic vulnerability. The first consequence was to put on the table a vulnerability of the Dutch system that can be extrapolated to all the states of the old continent. According to an analysis carried out by NOS, 67% of the domains of Dutch public organizations, hospitals and schools depend on at least one American cloud service.
Why is it important. The project has three compelling reasons for existing:
- Be real competition from North American big tech. The CEO of the Dutch competition body (ACM) has made it clear: “Overall, alliances like this can boost market forces by creating new players that are better positioned to compete with large American suppliers.”
- Boost to the national economy. The companies are clear in their manifesto: jobs and taxes for the Netherlands. In a phrase: “it is not an expense, it is an investment.”
- Data sovereignty. That such critical state services as health, education or digital identity depend on foreign companies subject to foreign legislation and corporate decisions outside of European control.
Context. This movement arises within the European debate on digital sovereignty and reducing technological dependence on the United States. The trend is not new, but Trump’s policies have accelerated that conversation. Europe has the legal framework in the form of GDPRthe Digital Markets Lawthe Digital Services Law wave Chips Actwhich make up a solid regulatory arsenal aimed at reducing foreign technological dependence.
The problem is that having the laws is not equivalent to having the industry. Local European suppliers are individually solvent, but they do not have the capacity to absorb complex projects or compete with the scale of the big three that dominate the market. Not even GAIA-Xthe large Franco-German sovereign cloud project, has been able to so far. Europe regulates well but scales poorly and that is the void that the Open Cloud Alliantie is going to try to fill.
How are they going to work?. He operating model It will be based on three pillars:
- Common technical standards, which will allow data to be moved between providers without friction by adopting the same technical specifications.
- Collaboration yes, cartel no. They will share standard infrastructure and may bid together for large contracts, but they are still competing with each other when it comes to winning customers.
- Sovereignty clause. If one of the seven is acquired by a non-European company, the others automatically absorb its role. The data always remains in Dutch hands, regardless of what happens in the mergers and acquisitions market.
Towards technological sovereignty of the cloud. The Open Cloud Alliantie is a relevant experiment on which other member states and corporations will set their sights as long as it is perfectly replicable. Medium-sized companies that otherwise could not compete with large companies in the United States, but that, grouped under common standards and clear collaboration rules, can offer a credible alternative to the public sector. The question is whether other European countries will take note before the dependency becomes too deep to reverse.
Cover | İsmail Enes Ayhan and François Genon
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