A shift at Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) will put European cloud interests front and center, a newly elected board member has said.
CISPE announced earlier this month it had updated its ‘Articles of Association’ so that only European entities can hold board positions.
Non-European entities with annual revenues in excess of €10 billion can participate, but with no influence on governance.
The new framework introduces a ‘Sovereignty and Strategic Autonomy Committee’ which will respond to European demand for homegrown cloud and AI infrastructure at a time when economic and geopolitical dependencies are becoming a greater concern, CISPE said.
Going forward, CISPE will focus on supporting cloud solutions that enhance competition and choice in European cloud, and the trade body said its activity will particularly benefit small and medium-sized businesses in the region, both as customers and vendors.
The change sees two new board members elected to CISPE, Hyve Managed Hosting's Jake Madders and Anexia’s Alexander Windbichler, as well as three re-elections of existing board members.
Some, such as AWS’ Stéphane Ducable, choose not to seek re-election.
“We are proud of our contributions to CISPE's achievements and growth over nearly a decade and remain committed to the association and its founding principles,” Ducable told ITPro in a statement.
“We believe this is the right moment to step back from the CISPE Board and create opportunities for other cloud services providers to take on leadership roles within the governing body of the association,” he added.
Madders, co-founder of UK-based Hyve Managed Hosting, expressed his full support of the move to a European structure of governance, suggesting it will benefit cloud firms within the region.
“This change ensures that our leadership is deeply rooted in European interests, allowing us to better address the unique challenges faced by cloud infrastructure providers and their customers across Europe,” Madders told ITPro.
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“By reserving board positions exclusively for European entities, we’re reinforcing our dedication to a competitive and independent European cloud ecosystem,” he said.
Madders added that even larger members and hyperscalers did not oppose the vote, and that this shift in governance now positions CISPE as the largest Europe-led independent cloud trade body.
“I’m eager to contribute to our mission of promoting a resilient and competitive European cloud landscape, offering customers the choice of data sovereignty when required.”
CISPE governance shift could “alienate” major cloud providers
Enforcing a Europe-only governance structure could create challenges for existing cloud users in the region according to Stuart Green, cloud security architect at Check Point Software.
“AWS, Azure, and GCP offer a wide range of unique services, and expecting a new provider to match or compete with these capabilities would require substantial investment,” Green told ITPro.
“Additionally, such a shift could alienate the major cloud providers, potentially leading to reduced availability of their European-hosted services,” he added.
Dirk Alshuth, cloud evangelist at cloud management platform, emma, was more positive though, suggesting the move will help create independence for European cloud companies.
“CISPE’s emphasis on European-only governance will allow companies and users in Europe to better navigate cloud space independently from changing geopolitical and economic matters and in accordance with their own laws and regulations,” Alshuth told ITPro.
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