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   bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺 (bert_hubert@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 22:14:31 JST bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺

   Europe has no position in "cloud" at all, but (government) initiatives abound to change this. In the post below I argue that AWS & friends are "IKEA clouds", attractive because they offer everything. And no one can compete with IKEA. I also argue that modern clouds are incredibly advanced (like airliners), and that you don't just replicate those either. Instead, Europe might might be better served by a narrower initial ambition:
   https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/taking-the-airbus-to-the-ikea-cloud/

   • Embed this notice
     phiofx (phiofx@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 22:35:50 JST phiofx

     in reply to

     @bert_hubert I love these comparative analogies between sectors, they enable reasoning around topics that otherwise seem too one-of-a-kind.

     My hunch is that "cloud" in its current hyperscale incarnation is a lost cause but the broader objective of digital sovereignty is anything but. The objective would be to leapfrog into the next design by identifying cloud failures (e.g. gaming) and more viable economic models. Europe needs a sophisticated digital "mittelstand" to match the industrial one.

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     phiofx (phiofx@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 22:57:57 JST phiofx

     in reply to

     @bert_hubert there is immense talent and resources in Europe but a notorious reluctance to actually take serious risk or discomfort the status quo / vested interests.

     So its always talking a beautiful talk ("digital and green transition", yeah, I actually totally dig that) but not walking the tough, walk-on-broken-eggs, walk.

     Yet the pressure to own up to the challenges of the digital era is rising and as you say, the total dependence on remote centers "is probably not smart in the long term"

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     bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺 (bert_hubert@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 22:57:58 JST bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺

     in reply to

     • phiofx

     @phiofx Thanks! And well said - now to get there somehow...

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     bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺 (bert_hubert@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 23:06:13 JST bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺

     in reply to

     • phiofx

     @phiofx https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/is-europe-just-not-good-at-innovating/ touches on this related problem..

   • Embed this notice
     phiofx (phiofx@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 23:20:13 JST phiofx

     in reply to

     @bert_hubert practically every paragraph here resonates deeply.

     For argument's sake a minor quibble with this: "Instead we have tons of highly educated folks ... building complex financial constructs"

     Here too, it is (was) mostly imported US financial thinking / tools, which sort of stopped after we got seriously burned. Europe's financial system is in a half-baked post-crisis limbo that competes in under-performance (and ultimately merges with) the dire state of its digital infrastructure.

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     phiofx (phiofx@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jan-2024 00:12:24 JST phiofx

     in reply to

     • Matthijs De Smedt
     • Morten Hilker-Skaaning

     @morten_skaaning @anji @bert_hubert there was deep integration in multiple ways but this relationship increasingly falls apart as their socioeconomic system heads into unchartered territory where Europe simply cannot go. This level of inequality and social disintegration would blow Europe to pieces (as it did in the past).

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     Morten Hilker-Skaaning (morten_skaaning@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Friday, 12-Jan-2024 00:12:26 JST Morten Hilker-Skaaning

     in reply to

     • Matthijs De Smedt
     • phiofx

     @anji @bert_hubert @phiofx on the other hand, how would US companies maintain dominance if they didn't have the infinite pockets of the US stock market to buy competitors?

     As I see it Europe pays the US for protection by selling them their top companies and then putting money into the US stock market.

     If the US stops defending Europe why would Europe allow its top assets to be sold off?

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     Matthijs De Smedt (anji@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jan-2024 00:12:27 JST Matthijs De Smedt

     in reply to

     • phiofx

     @bert_hubert @phiofx Great article. I've been thinking about this a lot after emigrating to the US, and I feel a large part of the problem is cultural. As you wrote, tech people just aren't valued/respected in Europe.

     It seems to me as if Europe clings to an industrial revolution era belief that successful companies must be driven by "businessmen". As if innovation is something that happens once before (lightbulb, engine, etc) and the business/finance people make it into a profitable product.