Geopolitical jitters push Europe's internet registry away from cloud strategy
Europe's internet registry, RIPE NCC, is shifting away from its cloud-first strategy due to geopolitical concerns over data sovereignty and reliance on non-European cloud providers. The organization plans to bring core services back in-house or to European-controlled infrastructure to mitigate risks from geopolitical tensions.
Background
- RIPE NCC is the nonprofit that manages IP addresses and internet number resources for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. It's based in Amsterdam and is one of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) that keep the global internet running.
- The registry had adopted a "cloud-first" strategy — moving its servers and infrastructure onto major US-owned cloud providers like AWS or Azure, following a trend common across tech organizations.
- The article reports that rising geopolitical tensions (the "jitters") have led RIPE NCC to reverse that strategy and bring infrastructure back in-house. The fear is that US-based cloud providers could be pressured by the US government to hand over data, enforce sanctions, or cut off services — threatening European digital sovereignty.
- This matters because it signals that even neutral, technical internet governance bodies now see US cloud dependency as a strategic risk, and it reflects a broader European push to control critical infrastructure independently of American tech giants.