· 3 min read
illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on POLITICO or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: A widespread outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted digital services across Europe, reigniting calls for the EU to reduce its dependency on U.S. tech providers
• Platforms such as Slack, Signal, Perplexity, and Snapchat experienced disruptions linked to AWS servers in the US-EAST-1 region, particularly Virginia
• The incident comes just days ahead of a planned EU summit where digital sovereignty will be a key agenda item
🔭 The context: The AWS disruption underscores the vulnerability of Europe’s digital infrastructure, much of which relies on U.S.-based hyperscale cloud providers
• While AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate the European cloud market, the EU has been seeking to assert more control over its digital future through projects like GAIA-X and discussions on “Eurostack” strategies
• Monday’s outage has intensified scrutiny of the continent’s overreliance on external infrastructure, even for critical services
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Cloud infrastructure underpins critical services in energy management, transportation, communications, and emergency response — sectors essential for achieving sustainability goals
• Outages like this highlight the environmental and societal risks of centralised digital architectures
• A more diversified, regional cloud system would not only enhance resilience but also allow Europe to better enforce its climate, data privacy, and transparency standards
⏭️ What's next: EU leaders are expected to debate cloud policy, vendor diversification, and digital infrastructure autonomy during this week’s high-level summit
• Proposals may include incentives for local cloud development, regulatory guidelines on data localisation, and further investment in sovereign digital infrastructure
• Civil society groups and digital rights advocates are also pressing for stronger oversight and contingency planning
💬 One quote: "Europe’s dependency on monopoly cloud companies like Amazon is a security vulnerability and an economic threat we can’t ignore." – Cori Crider, Executive Director, Future of Technology Institute
📈 One stat: Amazon Web Services controls roughly 40% of Europe’s public cloud market, according to 2025 estimates by Synergy Research Group
See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability and resilience ratings of Amazon and its peers including Microsoft, Google, and Oracle
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