Europe needs to create its own cloud services

Fredric Wallsten

CEO, Safespring

This article is written together with City Networks, Binero and Elastx.

In an op-ed in SvD, attorney Agne Lindberg and associate Adam Odmark highlight the risks posed by the Court of Justice of the European Union’s invalidation of the data protection agreement between the EU and the US, the so-called Privacy Shield. They propose that the government must act swiftly and should not rule out amending the recently agreed GDPR rules.

We believe that in a world where many put their own national interests first, and where those who control information hold power, it is more important than ever to uphold the agreed GDPR rules and other laws that safeguard our European values and personal privacy. The Court of Justice of the European Union has now made an important decision that creates great opportunities for European innovation. We in Europe can and must develop our own alternatives to American IT support that comply with and protect European laws and values. The governments of France and Germany have already begun through various projects, and Sweden, with its strong digital innovation capacity, has every opportunity to follow suit and build a new Swedish foundational industry.

Of course, the ruling will in the short term create challenges for the many companies and public agencies that rely on American IT support for data operations—so-called cloud services where American companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are dominant players.

In the long term, the ruling will, however, have very positive effects, as it means that Europe needs to build its own framework for this fundamental and societally critical digital infrastructure that IT services represent. And Sweden in particular has a unique opportunity. With our strong digital innovation capacity, we can create a new foundational industry and a strong export segment in this area. New Swedish global companies can emerge, and new engineering-intensive jobs can be created.

For Sweden to seize this opportunity, however, the government—led by Minister for Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth and Minister for Enterprise Ibrahim Baylan—needs to recognize the innovation potential of digital infrastructure. Unfortunately, far too much focus is being placed on how Swedish legislation can be adapted to promote American solutions and interests, of which Agne Lindberg and Adam Odmark’s article is yet another example.

We are, of course, in favor of a fully open and competitive market in which American solutions are also part of the mix, but there are many advantages to increased local competition in the field of IT infrastructure. Not only will greater choice eliminate the oligopolistic position that American IT infrastructure providers have held to date. It will also lead to a safer world in which we can advance European values. Digital infrastructure has today become one of the most important areas of security policy, since whoever owns the information can control the world. In a world where nations put their own interests first, it is a major security risk to rely almost exclusively on non-European providers. A simple parallel is how we in Sweden have historically thought about the defense industry, or the ongoing review of emergency stockpiles of food supplies and healthcare equipment in the wake of the current pandemic. We must be able to stand on our own two feet!

Even though Sweden is often seen as a frontrunner in digitalization, the government has hardly acted forcefully enough to promote local innovation in the cloud infrastructure that is the very foundation for digitalization to work. It is therefore important that industry and government now join forces to create a long-term sustainable solution. The objective should be to examine how we can build a Swedish foundational industry in IT infrastructure while promoting Swedish exports and national security.

Fredric Wallsten, CEO and founder, Safespring
Johan Christenson, CEO and founder, City Network
Charlotte Darth, CEO, Binero Group
Joakim Öhman, CEO and founder, Elastx

The CJEU’s invalidation of Privacy Shield

Now that cloud services subject to US law likely cannot be used in procurement, we at Safespring have released a white paper on the new legal landscape.

This white paper addresses the post-ruling conditions and recommendations for organizations within the EU, and is divided into four chapters.

• The Schrems II ruling (Part I),
• the market structure for cloud services and the interplay between technical requirements and the law (Part II),
• the roles of various Swedish stakeholders in further developing this market structure, and particularly the need to coordinate efforts at the state level (Part III),
• and a brief description of the way forward (Part IV).