A major European cloud provider organisation has committed €1 million (£834,465) to open-source software development that it hopes can ‘Trump-proof’ cloud services in the EU.

CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe) announced that the extra funding will go towards accelerating its Fulcrum Project, an open-source digital exchange designed to allow European service providers to align distributed cloud services.

Aiming to create a common multi-layer federation, the project is a collaborative effort between cloud providers, managed service providers, internet service providers and carriers, to drive scalable, distributed cloud infrastructure across Europe, providing what CISPE hopes will be a sovereign alternative to hyperscale solutions.

To shore up European cloud services in the face of increasing US tech-protectionist policies emanating from the White House, Fulcrum’s open-source code has been released in what CISPE described as an effort to enable European cloud providers to pool their infrastructures and compete with foreign-controlled cloud providers.

Developed with CISPE’s investment, the Fulcrum code is being licensed as open source so that any cloud service provider looking to integrate or consume pooled cloud resources can participate.

“The financial backing and expert collaboration from CISPE have been transformative,” said Emile Chalouhi of the Fulcrum Project.

“With the publication of our open-source code, we aim to foster deeper industry collaboration, empowering European providers to scale and deliver strategically autonomous cloud solutions and accelerate the adoption of European software through a new cloud ecosystem paradigm shift.”

With the move, CISPE argued that many cloud customers in Europe, including public administrations, are becoming more concerned that foreign governments have too much power to demand data, impose tariffs and restrict services on the cloud infrastructures they use. 

By investing in this collaborative approach, the group wants to provide cloud customers with what it called ‘Trump-proof’ services that rely on 100% European cloud infrastructure, immune from disruption, access and potential removal by foreign actors.  

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“We share the diagnosis that Europe lacks an effective choice of sovereign and strategically autonomous cloud solutions at scale,” said CISPE secretary general, Francisco Mingorance.

“Past attempts to create ‘Airbus-style’ cloud champions have repeatedly failed because centralised, top-down approaches ignore market dynamics and innovation. 

“Europe’s strength lies in its diversity and bottom-up approaches—we are home to more cloud infrastructure providers than any other continent. 

“Collectively, these providers can pool their resources to deliver greater diversity, reach, and scale than any single company could achieve alone.”