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  Jost Shelvis

  Technical Editor

More European alternatives please, is Foreign Minister Van Heuvelen’s response to research by NOS, which shows that governments and companies are turning en masse to Microsoft and other US cloud providers. “So we can also store data safely here,” she told NOS.

The House of Representatives, the tech giant ASML, the supervisory authority for financial markets – what they have in common is that they are all choosing US cloud services from Google, Amazon and Microsoft, just like thousands of other Dutch companies and governments. Because these services are cheap and of good quality – but the US government can also access them in certain cases.

Robust European alternatives are urgently needed before US internet services completely dominate the market, and there is no longer another option, think tank Clingendael wrote in a critical report. a report On behalf of AIVD

“This is the last chance to invest in European options,” says researcher Mikey Okano Heijmans of Clingendael. If this doesn’t happen, it will be bad for the Netherlands’ digital independence, the think tank warns. “It’s five to twelve.”

This investment has been limited so far. “What the Netherlands is investing in this, compared to France, for example, is really astonishing,” says Lotti de Bruin of trade organization NLdigital, of which US tech giants are also members.

Meanwhile, Dutch governments, including parliament, are choosing Microsoft over the Dutch or European parties. “The government has a lot of money to spend on ICT, and it could also use it to help European companies,” Okano-Heymans says.

The fact that so many companies and governments are choosing Microsoft and other US parties has to do with convenience and money, says Erik Paes, president of the Dutch Cloud Community trade association, which represents Dutch providers exclusively. “If you want to use Outlook and Office, you can also do that with a Dutch provider. There’s no need to do that with Microsoft.”

But it’s more work. “With Microsoft, you can use a credit card and it will work.” It’s also cheaper with Americans. This is possible because Microsoft is the software vendor and the mail storage vendor. Other providers must purchase licenses from Microsoft to offer the software to their customers.

The fact that no Dutch or European organizations enjoy the same economies of scale can be explained by the fact that companies within the United States actually grow more easily. “As an American Internet company, you have the entire United States as potential customers, and in Europe you are lucky if you can start in Germany,” says Internet entrepreneur and infrastructure expert Bert Hubert. Once they have these economies of scale, they can also use them more easily in Europe.

“American companies also dare to take more risks,” says Hubert. “They build something and then see whether customers come to it or not. Here we do it in reverse.”

Okano-Hemans agrees. “What’s called Venture capital“Investors take into account that companies can go bankrupt.” While bankruptcy in the Netherlands is a mortal sin. “Then you get a cross behind your name in the banks.”

In addition, American companies often pay much better wages to their employees, which means that European talent leaves and moves to those companies. “Pay peanuts, get monkeys, that’s the cliché.”

Secretary of State Van Hoeflen warns that organizations that choose Microsoft or other US parties must do so carefully. “For some activities, that’s not necessarily a problem. But for things that really need to remain secret, you have to make sure there’s an alternative.”