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Digital sovereignty: on-prem or in the cloud?
This year at Edgecase 2025, TrueFullstaq introduced something new: C-level sessions, designed for CTOs, CIOs, and other executives. These weren’t just lectures – they were fully interactive. In the historic Rijtuigenloods, Kim McMahon (Head of Marketing, Sidero Labs), Emanuela Zaccone (Staff Product Manager, Sysdig), and tech expert Bert Hubert engaged in a lively conversation with the audience.
Guiding the session was moderator Chris Baars, CCO at TrueFullstaq. “This Rijtuigenloods in Amersfoort has been a hub of technical innovation and debate for over 125 years,” Chris noted. “And today, we’re continuing that tradition.” The executives in the darkened hall, each wearing their own headset, were quick to take him up on that invitation, firing questions at the panelists.
European cloud for defense money?
One hot topic: Dutch defense spending. Within NATO, it’s agreed that member states should raise spending to 5% of GDP, with 1.5% of that earmarked for infrastructure. Could digital infrastructure fall under that category? “That would be odd,” argued Bert Hubert. “It would mean we’re investing in non-European industry. Really, we should spend that money building our own cloud applications, so we don’t have to hand over sensitive data.” That, of course, was the ambition behind GAIA-X—but it didn’t succeed. “Probably because Europe never truly wanted to build a system,” said Emanuela Zaccone. “Instead, it looked for piecemeal solutions to specific issues.”
Selling theater with artificial intelligence
The conversation then shifted to AI and digital sovereignty. “Everyone gets dazzled by AI’s potential,” Zaccone said. “But hardly anyone is interested in the legal side of it—and that’s exactly what we need to look at.” Hubert agreed, noting that companies themselves often aren’t clear about what they want. “They just say, ‘We want to do something with AI—help us.’ And AI companies are happy to sell them theater.” He clarified that he’s not against open AI models. “But you can also run them locally, on your own hardware.” To illustrate, he mentioned that his own system for searching Dutch parliamentary documents runs on an old Linux server.
On-prem with Kubernetes
This sparked debate: cloud versus on-prem. McMahon sees more and more organizations pulling back from the cloud. “Cost and security are driving them on-prem. Just make sure your setup works with Kubernetes.” Hubert was more skeptical about hybrid models. “The whole point of going to the cloud was to escape complexity. Hybrid just adds more complexity. My advice: go fully on-prem and keep it simple. Above all, don’t spread yourself across too many different vendors.”
Manage your own backup
But if you do stay in the cloud, how do you maintain trust in your provider? Hubert stressed the importance of regular health checks. “Always ask: who owns the applications you rely on?” Zaccone added that slow-moving European regulation—like the delayed rollout of NIS-2—makes this even more urgent. “Be cautious with offerings like Data as a Service. And always, always keep your own backup.”
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