Europe is completely dependent on US cloud services, Martin Kleppmann told QCon London. His fix: commoditise everything. He walked through three technologies he's helped build: multi-cloud via de facto standards, Bluesky's AT Protocol for social media, and local-first software for collaboration, all designed to make switching providers trivial and shift power back to users.
The Cloud Is a Prison. Can the Local-First Software Movement Set Us Free?
Tired of relying on Big Tech to enable collaboration, peer-to-peer enthusiasts are creating a new model that cuts out the middleman. (That’s you, Google.)
Mitigating Geopolitical Risks with Local-First Software and atproto
Martin Kleppmann discusses the urgent need for technological sovereignty in modern infrastructure. Exploring the shifting landscape of global tech dependencies, he shares how engineering leaders can leverage multi-cloud architecture, de facto API standardization, the AT Protocol, and local-first development paradigms to reclaim user agency and build highly resilient systems.
Anatomy of a Franco-German tech misfire
As Europe debates how far to go in pivoting away from US Big Tech, a cloud initiative provides a cautionary tale.
The past, present, and future of local-first - Martin Kleppmann (Local-First Conf)
The past, present, and future of local-first - Martin Kleppmann (Local-First Conf)
Beyond the Cloud: Brooklyn Zelenka on Local-First Software
Why rely on the cloud when your devices are already powerful? Brooklyn Zelenka explains how local-first computing is revolutionizing software development for collaboration without constant connectivity.
Is it time for Cloud Native Open Source?
tl;dr; maybe, but the old school Open Source is not going away any time soon
Why cloud native belongs at the heart of agentic AI: Lessons from building a multi-agent security platform on Kubernetes
In March, I gave a talk at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam. After the session, the same questions kept coming up on the CNCF Slack and in person: why build agentic AI on cloud native…
Local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud
Local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud Kleppmann et al., Onward! ’19 Watch out! If you start reading this paper you could be lost for hours following all the interesti…
Blue Sky Thinking, European Infrastructure: Internet Archive Europe Has Moved to Eurosky - Internet Archive Europe
We've moved our Bluesky presence. Our account looks the same. Our data now lives somewhere different, on European infrastructure, under European law. Here's why we made that choice. What changed and what didn't When you use Bluesky, your posts, followers, and interactions live on a server. By default, that server belongs to Bluesky. Moving to
A European path out of Big Tech lock-in: Eurosky + the "Everything Account" idea (AT Protocol)
If you care as much about privacy, decentralization, and independence from Big Tech than having a 100% EU-made software stack, Eurosky might be worth…
Local-First Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure: Create, Collaborate, and Publish Without the Cloud
Peter Van Hardenberg - Local First: the secret master plan
European Alternatives
We help you find European alternatives for digital service and products, like cloud services and SaaS products.
Not that I'm at all against sovereign infrastructure, but it's quite interesting to see so much focus local, interoperable cloud infrastructure while interoperability remains taboo for individuals and communities. bsky.app/profile/chrisshank.com/post/3…
𝕮
Ha obviously im glad there are incentives and investment in sovereign tech stacks! But let‘s not trick ourselves into believing swapping out tech giants with some new companies and regulations will suddenly fix everything.
