Abilian co-founder of Euclidia - the European Cloud Industry Alliance
On 8 July 2021, 23 European companies announced the creation of the European Cloud Industrial Alliance (EUCLIDIA) formed by European independent creators of original cloud technologies, to promote digital independence and strategic autonomy. The founding members are : Abilian, Amarisoft, Beremiz, BlueMind, Clever cloud, E.corp, Jamespot, Innoroute, Linbit, Netframe, Nexedi, Nextcloud, ng-voice, Nitrokey, OpenSVC, Patrowl, Rapid.Space, Scaleway, SenX, Signal18, Submer, Vates and XWiki. These companies all develop original software and hardware at the heart of a wide range of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, edge, vRAN, etc.
EUCLIDIA is supported by European non-profit organisations that provide resources and access to European institutions: the Conseil national du logiciel libre (cnll.fr), the European Association of Innovators in Next Generation Telecommunications (eangti.org), the Fond de Dotation du Libre (fdl-lef.org) and OW2 (ow2.org).
EUCLIDIA will be the voice of European cloud technology innovators. Its members are all based in Europe with a majority of European shareholders. Its mission is to provide legislators and policy makers with the on-the-ground expertise and vision that will strengthen policies that accelerate the adoption and development of cutting-edge cloud technologies created in Europe. These policies must reflect European values such as the protection of privacy and the promotion of fair competition, while enabling European cloud industries to compete.
European cloud technologies are used by at least 50% of the largest companies in France (CAC 40) and Germany (DAX 30). Their rich ecosystem provides highly competitive solutions that also mitigate the risks posed by extraterritorial laws such as the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Europe must strengthen its support for national innovators and ensure that they can flourish worldwide from within the European Union. Through open dialogue with relevant stakeholders, including industry and policy makers, EUCLIDIA will help governments and businesses better understand the value of an independent European cloud technology ecosystem. EUCLIDIA will advocate appropriate regulatory frameworks that ensure trust and rapid access to public markets for European cloud technologies. EUCLIDIA will support young developers who want to contribute to Europe's digital autonomy.
Europe needs public funding to compete on a level playing field with the US and China. Projects such as JEDI in the United States and CSTCloud in China use highly cost-effective public tenders to accelerate national cloud innovation without market constraints or competition from foreign suppliers. Euclidia will advocate reciprocal access to public contracts and public funding in Europe for at least 10 cutting-edge cloud computing platforms based on European technologies.
Stefane Fermigier, founder and Chairman of Abilian, said: "As an open source SaaS and PaaS vendor, Abilian is participating in Euclidia with the ambition of federating European creative energies for the benefit of an innovative, open, interoperable cloud that respects the confidentiality of companies and the rights of citizens".
