European Cloud Platforms

"Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying US hyperscalers" - Will That Remain?


Picture this: you're in a meeting room, a hot cup of coffee in your hand, PowerPoint is loaded, and you're about to pitch your company’s new AI cloud infrastructure setup. Someone asks, "Which provider should we choose?". If your answer is one of the big US hyperscalers – AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud – you’re likely getting a lot of approving nods. Nobody ever got fired for buying US hyperscalers, right?

But will this be the status quo forever? In this article, we want to explore why this narrative exists, why european cloud providers are not considered when this question comes up, and how approaches including Sky Computing could rewrite the story.



Why Do US Hyperscalers Dominate?


There may be a lot of different answers for this question out there - so these are the three main reasons why we think European Cloud providers have a hard time competing against their US counterparts.


  1. 1. Fragmentation: Europe’s Cloud Market is All Over the Place: Think of the world’s cloud scene as hotels and their buffet. In Europe hotels make nice buffets with good regional food – everything looks decent, but nothing compares to the fancy all-you-can-eat international cuisine offered by the big three hyperscalers. While you might not enjoy or need everything in their vast offerings, the variety and convenience can be hard to resist. European cloud providers like OVHcloud, Scaleway, and Deutsche Telekom’s OTC are reliable players, but they’re often regionally focused, doubling down on specific use cases or functionalities and don’t have the massive ecosystems US hyperscalers offer.

  2. 2. Limited Features and Scalability: It is no secret: US hyperscalers are like Swiss Army knives for the cloud. Whatever you may need, from AI, to serverless compute, or a fully managed data warehouse with global reach - they have it in their portfolio. European providers often lack this kind of service breadth and scalability, which makes it hard to the buying companies with complex needs.

  3. 3. Lack of Awareness: How many people have heard of OVHcloud or Scaleway? We talk to many people in the space and European cloud players are still highly unknown. Now compare that to AWS or Azure. It’s a big difference. European providers have a smaller, niche audience, while US hyperscalers dominate the stage with widespread recognition, brand and influence.



The Sovereignty Dilemma


Here’s a twist we're observing, especially with AI and growing data-sensitivity coming into the game. US hyperscalers dominate by far, but European businesses aren’t exactly thrilled about the risk handing their proprietary data to foreign providers subject to US laws like CLOUD Act (even when using their European data centers). According to the IDC EMEA Cloud Survey, 84% of European organizations currently use or plan to adopt sovereign cloud solutions within 12 months, with the main drivers being enhanced cybersecurity, compliance and industry regulations.


Yet, despite these concerns, the convenience, scale and functionality of US providers often outweigh the sovereignty issue. “Microsoft, as a partner, brings enormous reach, which is invaluable for marketing AI solutions,” noted Bayer’s IT chief Bijoy Sagar. He is referring to Bayer's recently published AI model for plant protection and pest control that the company put for sale to third parties. “Unfortunately, there’s no German option that can scale to meet our needs.”, he claimed. (Source: Handelsblatt)


What about the emerging hope GAIA-X? GAIA-X aims to create a unified European data infrastructure. Think of it as a team-up of European technology providers and industrial players to take on the big guys. At PERIAN, we think it is a cool idea! However it brings highly fragmented stakeholder interests, unclear value propositions and slow progress. There is still a lot of room for new approaches and a bunch of problems to tackle! In the meantime, European companies are left alone weighing cloud sovereignty against functionality. For now...



Shifting Trends – Is the Tide Turning?


Not all hope is lost. Geopolitical tensions, the latest elections we all followed, stricter data protection laws like GDPR, US AI chip export control and growing awareness of cloud and data sovereignty issues are nudging companies to reconsider their cloud choices. Especially sensitive sectors like finance, healthcare, and government are particularly keen on keeping their data close to home. Yes, not only the commercial sector but also legislators are working on creating the frameworks for an independent digital infrastructure in Europe, especially for our joint future driven by AI models and applications (e.g. EU IPCEI-CIS Projects).


But are these shifts enough for European clouds to win over hyperscalers? Is the only right way to simply turn away from US clouds completely? We don't think so.


Only by addressing the fragmentation among European providers while continuously scaling their offerings and functionality, decision-makers in Europe can feel more confident about moving their workloads to European providers. Maybe it won't be all of their workloads in beginning, but businesses can at least start with few use cases or data- and cost-sensitive workloads. In the end, every Euro that is spend on European clouds helps our cloud landscape evolve.



Sky Computing – Bridging the Gap to balance Local Expertise with Global Innovation


What if you could have the best of both worlds? That’s where Sky Computing and PERIAN comes in. We’re not here to replace European cloud providers or fight the US hyperscaler. Instead, we’re creating a bridge with Sky Computing– making it easy to use the services of multiple clouds seamlessly, whether they’re from the US, Europe, or anywhere else.


With PERIAN, we focus on:


  • ▪ Best-of-Breed: Mix and match the best cloud services for your use case without needing a PhD in cloud.

  • ▪ Cost & Performance Optimization: Build your cloud stack with the cheapest, most available and highest performing resources, whether from a hyperscaler or a local provider.

  • ▪ Sovereignty & Compliance: Keep workloads and data within EU borders or even on purely European platforms. PERIAN partners with European Clouds and help companies integrate them into their cloud stack.



Let’s Talk – And Validate


We’re putting this statement out there: US hyperscalers dominate due to fragmentation, features, scale and convenience. But with the right tools, the European cloud ecosystem could gain traction. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you know someone we should talk to about this? With PERIAN, we want to bring European cloud services back to the table—without risking anyone getting fired!


Whether you’re a hyperscaler loyalist, a European cloud advocate, or just a curious observer, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop us a message ([email protected]), and let’s shape the the next era of cloud together. So, will the phrase "Nobody ever got fired for buying US hyperscalers" stand the test of time? Or is it about to get disrupted? Let’s find out – together!