Source: GOV Magazine #21 autumn 2025
Photo: Peter Verkoulen, credits: Arie Cijfer for GOV Magazine
Peter Verkoulen is programme director of the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing & Cloud (CoE-DSC). Since 2023, this centre has brought together a number of generic Dutch initiatives in the field of data sharing and cloud computing. The CoE-DSC supports (federative) initiatives in the field of data sharing and cloud computing, works on interoperability and stimulates the market. It does so in an international context. The CoE-DSC also fulfils the role of Gaia-X hub in the Netherlands, with the aim of promoting digital sovereignty and thereby helping to realise social and economic value.
Three quarters of global cloud capacity is managed by three so-called hyperscalers: Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services. In the discussion about the need for (more) sovereignty, there are also calls for a European equivalent. “But even if you decided to go ahead with that, what would be the path to get there?” says Peter Verkoulen.
Verkoulen admits that he does not know the answer himself, but he is willing to think about it aloud. “I suppose that a European version of Microsoft would probably behave differently than the American Microsoft, but it would still be a hyperscaler with the associated business models. So the question is: how would that benefit us? But also: where would the billions, perhaps 50 or 100, come from to build that hyperscaler? Because the current three were created over a period of 20 years, mainly as a result of the way we all behaved as purchasing organisations.”
Federative approach
“The problem is: it would take at least ten years to get there, and then the question is: how do you get through those years? You could defend such a step by saying: ultimately, we just want to be completely independent. But do you achieve that by building a European hyperscaler – and, to be honest, going from three to four doesn’t really broaden the choice – or by enabling federative solutions?” Gaia-X is one of the European initiatives that advocates such a federative approach. “This allows me, for example, to work with a smaller cloud provider because it happens to be around the corner or provides very specific services, or because I am sure that my personal data will remain in the Netherlands. And I can combine that with a German or French party, or a hyperscaler, depending on what you want.”
Verkoulen uses the parable of the patchwork quilt to illustrate the federative solution. “You can stitch your solution together entirely with European patches – and if someone wants to weave in a Japanese, Indian or American patch, that’s fine. And if you don’t like the blue patch, you should be able to unpick it and replace it with a green patch.”
Gaia-X was created in 2020 on the initiative of eleven French and eleven German companies. Since then, around 250 companies and institutions worldwide have joined. “It is an initiative that originated in Europe, based on European standards and values, but with a broader international perspective. After all, what use is a solution that only works in Europe in today’s global system? So we quickly looked for ways to expand it, which resulted in the establishment of hubs in other countries. There is a hub in America, a hub in Japan, a hub in South Korea, so it is truly spread across the globe. The Ministry of Economic Affairs then asked TNO to start this in the Netherlands, and TNO asked me, in my role as an independent consultant, to do this for them.”
In 2023, the hub merged into the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing & Cloud, the Dutch hub for everything related to data sharing and the underlying necessary (federative) cloud infrastructures.
Core values
With core values of data sovereignty, interoperability, transparency and open standards, Gaia-X has now been underway for five years. “It’s a process of lots of talking and thinking and writing documents, and for the past year and a half, actual software has also been developed. The core of Gaia-X is actually the so-called Digital Clearing House, which connects data-sharing parties and allows them to link (cloud) services that can then be used federatively. There are now ten commercial parties in the world that provide this Digital Clearing House functionality. In the Netherlands, too, discussions with a few candidates are in the final stages. This also clears up any misunderstanding that Gaia-X itself would start providing services and become a competitor to IT suppliers. No, Gaia-X is not a commercial party, but provides a standard for associated software specifications, and commercial companies will ultimately provide that functionality.”
He adds that Airbus and Électricité de France (EDF) are requesting Gaia-X compliance in their tenders. “These are the first steps, but we are on the verge of a breakthrough.”
Another misconception is that Gaia-X would be subsidised by the European Commission, Verkoulen points out. The members pay contributions and thus raise the working budget. “The government does have an important role to play, because it has enormous market power that it can use in European tenders. These tenders always refer to the ‘most economically advantageous tender’, which used to focus primarily on price and only later on functionality. But now you also have to consider aspects of sovereignty and availability. Can I easily organise a Plan B if something happens to my service provider? Or if I suddenly can no longer access data in America, do I have an alternative? I think you need to pay attention to that and ultimately be willing to pay for it. So the government also has a very important role to play in purchasing the IT solutions it needs anyway and can stimulate and regulate this on the fly, as it were. ”
Verkoulen continues: “This applies in general, and even more so to the innovative applications we are discussing in this context. It’s the well-known chicken-and-egg problem: if there is no demand, suppliers will not develop anything. So the government can provide an impetus here. Fortunately, this is already happening. There are a number of large innovative data sharing projects in the Netherlands, such as Health-RI. This concerns secondary data in healthcare, so it is not about supporting the primary process but using data to drive innovation and answer policy questions. Another good example is the Smart Connected Supplier Network (SCSN) in the Brainport region. Here, a federated data sharing solution has been implemented that is used daily by more than 400 high-tech companies via more than ten service providers.”
Priorities and guidance
In the Dutch Digitalisation Strategy (NDS) announced on 4 July, data, cloud and resilience are three of the six priorities. “Ergo: this must now really lead to a single approach by the government in these areas. In the preparatory workshops, someone said: ‘We have a Central Government Real Estate Agency, shouldn’t we also move towards a Central Government Cloud Agency?’ And then you see people reacting and saying that it’s a good idea, and then arguing why it doesn’t suit them after all. But NDS now conveys the message that this is no longer a choice; we have to do this together. For reasons of effectiveness, cost and functionality. But also because it allows us to steer the market and ensure that we move in a better direction. Of course, in the current market, where 70-80 per cent of services are provided by hyperscalers, we cannot turn that around in the short term. But we do need to set that movement in motion now and take major steps in the coming years. Incidentally, the hyperscalers also have a role to play in the future, but in such a way that we still have control over it. And we see that in this federative approach and patchwork quilt.”
How do you think the hyperscalers will respond to this? Loss of market share seems a logical consequence…
“Yes, that’s possible, but if you work towards more sovereign solutions, an even larger market will emerge. If the market quadruples in size and your market share halves, you will still have doubled your turnover in absolute terms. So even with a smaller market share, you can still benefit from that growing market. On the one hand, it’s about limiting the damage in a controlled manner, and on the other hand, new possibilities and opportunities are simply emerging. In the current geopolitical climate, which we sometimes forget, American customers also have questions about dependency and continuity. In general, this is something that is here to stay. So it is better to take active measures, even as a hyperscaler.
A brief anecdote: “When I spoke to stakeholders about digital autonomy two or three years ago, my punchline was always along the lines of: ‘By facilitating digital autonomy, we enable innovation and economic growth’; if you know you can share your data securely with others, you will do so. And then the response was usually that there was no policy yet for digital autonomy or sovereignty. Partly due to current geopolitical developments – to put it neutrally – this is now priority number one, two and three in politics and therefore also at the top of the ministries and implementing organisations. And also in the business community, because there too, people want data to be secure, although perhaps more for competitive than privacy reasons. This is also reflected in the SCSN example mentioned earlier: on the one hand, companies share data with each other and, on the other hand, they are competitors. So they want to have control over what they share and for what purpose.”
EuroStack
Data sharing and data sovereignty are also currently a matter of high priority in Europe. After the European Commission (EC) previously commissioned a consortium of European companies to build Simpl (to support data access and interoperability between European data spaces) and established the European Data Spaces Support Centre, EuroStack is the EC’s most recent initiative, involving more than 250 companies and organisations, including the Dutch organisations RINIS and AMS-IX. EuroStack focusses on creating a plan for a sovereign digital infrastructure for Europe across the entire (digital) stack and originated from a conference in 2024 where DG CONNECT (the EC’s Directorate-General responsible for digitalisation) and European business leaders discussed the need for greater sovereignty and how to achieve it.
“A sovereign digital infrastructure for Europe across the entire stack: that is, from the bottom with the raw materials and chips to the top with the application layer, AI applications, etc. So, the entire tower is now being considered and discussed in terms of how Europe can achieve greater sovereignty and control with regard to the applications that are used. Gaia-X is making a small but real contribution to this, particularly in terms of the cloud and data sharing,” says Verkoulen. He adds: “The fact is that you have to think about what control you have at all levels and what solutions from others you can use. Because you can build sovereign cloud solutions as Europe, but what hardware are you going to use to do that? What virtualisation software? What chips are you going to use, and so on.” The patchwork principle applies at all these levels.
