{"id":6313,"date":"2026-05-14T16:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6313"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:04:21","slug":"a-european-central-bank-has-signed-a-mega-deal-with-a-cloud-service-provider-the-problem-for-google-microsoft-and-amazon-its-not-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6313","title":{"rendered":"A European central bank has signed a mega deal with a cloud service provider. The problem for Google,\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0and Amazon?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not with them\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By design, central banks are cautious. Protecting a nation\u2019s currency and financial stability\u00a0are serious matters, ill-suited to risk-taking and chancy deals.\u00a0In a world of Tiger Onitsuka trainers and tech-bro t-shirts, central bankers wear a suit and tie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It may seem\u00a0superficially\u00a0surprising, then,\u00a0when one of Europe\u2019s central banks announces that it is moving its essential cloud services away from the tried and trusted U.S. giants\u00a0of Google,\u00a0Amazon,\u00a0and Microsoft\u00a0to a company more famous for selling groceries at bargain prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two weeks\u00a0ago,\u00a0the Dutch\u00a0central bank said its cloud\u00a0services would\u00a0now be supported by Schwartz Digits,\u00a0part of the Lidl\u00a0low-cost\u00a0supermarket group\u00a0(latest offer,\u00a0a five-pack of oranges for $1.34). Schwartz Digits was originally built to support the retail\u00a0business,\u00a0bringing value-butter\u00a0and eggs\u00a0to grateful consumers.\u00a0It is now a successful provider of\u00a0secure\u00a0data services to European businesses and government organizations.\u00a0De Nederlandsche Bank\u00a0is just the latest win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A trend is developing in Europe that should give the\u00a0American corporate world, and particularly the\u00a0White House,\u00a0pause for thought. The U.S. tech giants, whose services are lauded for their performance, are being increasingly\u00a0eschewed in favor of European alternatives. The Dutch government has\u00a0also announced its first deals with\u00a0StackIT, a subsidiary of Schwartz Digits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more: \u201cI had to turn down President Obama\u201d<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s justice and security minister,\u00a0David van Weel,\u00a0said the agreement was \u201can important step in reducing our dependence on parties outside Europe and strengthening our digital resilience,\u201d\u00a0Dutch News\u00a0reported.\u00a0Other customers\u00a0of\u00a0StackIT\u00a0include Commerzbank and the Hamburg Port Authority.\u00a0SAP has also announced moves to strengthen its European-based digital\u00a0infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is not an issue of skills or scale\u2013Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft\u00a0Azure have plenty of both. Rather, geopolitical risk\u00a0is prompting action\u00a0as American\u00a0and European approaches to\u00a0digital\u00a0security diverge.\u00a0Protections against Chinese providers have long been \u201ctop of mind\u201d.\u00a0The same is now true of the U.S. as Europe\u00a0seeks\u00a0to become more\u00a0\u201cdigitally\u00a0sovereign\u201d\u00a0in how it approaches\u00a0data security and\u00a0resilience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more: \u201cFull blast\u201d\u2014Yara CEO says there is only one way to respond to the crisis in the Gulf: do everything better<\/p>\n

Under the U.S. Cloud Act,\u00a0passed in 2018,\u00a0American\u00a0technology\u00a0operators can be required by law to hand over data to the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0authorities.\u00a0The possible risk of a\u00a0European\u00a0country\u2019s data being demanded by a foreign nation, even if\u00a0the service is provided from a European center, is one too high to contemplate\u00a0across\u00a0a\u00a0myriad\u00a0of\u00a0disciplines, including healthcare, government\u00a0services\u00a0and banking.\u00a0The American firm, Palantir, has faced controversy in the U.K. after a data deal was signed with the country\u2019s revered National Health Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics of the U.S. Cloud Act say the risks are real. Last year, Donald Trump issued an executive order claiming the International Criminal Court, based at the\u00a0Hague in the Netherlands, had\u00a0\u201cengaged in illegitimate and baseless actions\u201d against America and Israel\u00a0over Gaza\u00a0and sanctioning its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.\u00a0Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft, denied\u00a0that\u00a0the ICC\u2019s\u00a0access to\u00a0its\u00a0services\u00a0had been\u00a0affected\u00a0after the Associated Press reported that\u00a0Khan\u2019s\u00a0email account\u00a0had been\u00a0suspended.\u00a0\u201cAsset freezes and targeted sanctions against ICC staff have a chilling effect on companies and civil society organizations that might otherwise engage with the ICC,\u201d\u00a0left-leaning\u00a0members of the European Parliament said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few months later, the ICC announced that it was moving its data\u00a0operations\u00a0to\u00a0openDesk,\u00a0part of the\u00a0ZenDis\u00a0Center for Digital Sovereignty, which is backed by the German federal government. \u201cOpenDesk\u00a0embodies our mission to lay the foundation for autonomous, effective digital administration in Germany and Europe by promoting digital independence while enabling modern workflows,\u201d the\u00a0organization\u00a0says on its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The President often talks of \u201cAmerica First\u201d.\u00a0For Europe, \u201cAmerica second\u201d or \u201cAmerica not all\u201d is becoming increasingly true.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

#European #central #bank #signed #mega #deal #cloud #service #provider #problem #GoogleMicrosoftand #AmazonItsnot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By design, central banks are cautious. Protecting a nation\u2019s currency and financial stability\u00a0are serious matters,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[291,12033,200,5562,1397,110,1436,12029,881,12032,4275,4276,10016,879,823,12031,80,12030],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}