by Jean-Paul Smets, CEO of Nexedi

On 24 September 2021 I achieved strategic autonomy in the cloud. I am no longer dependent on GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) or BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencen, Xiaomi) for my daily work. My working environment is pleasant to use. Apart from a few drivers and the maps application on my smartphone (Magic Earth, Netherlands), all software is free. The hardware of the servers, routers, 5G stations and industrial PCs for the edge are freely licensed. The operating processes of the cloud are released under an open source license. And I even have a personal search engine now, so I don't have to rely on the sometimes censored results of Google or Baidu.

Everything in this environment can be copied, reproduced, improved, shared at will, as I want, when I want and under my control.

I continue to work in a "Full Web" spirit for reasons that have not changed since 2015: the Web enables interoperability between operating systems as well as between social groups. It brings users and developers together around a universal standard: HTML5. All I have to do to share an application or a document with my clients or suppliers is to share a URL.

I work in a "complete cloud" mode: all services I use are automated, reproducible and shared, which considerably reduces costs for the same quality. The management applications are also deployed and operated automatically, like a SaaS where you have the source code and operating procedures.

I also contribute to reducing the CO2 imprint of the cloud thanks to Rapid.Space's circular economy methods. My recertified mobile phone and repairable laptop are supplied by companies who are part of the Fairtec Alliance for responsible digital products. Cloudless technologies allow me to develop web applications that run without a server, who contribute to even less dependence on any network infrastructure and therefore a further reduction in CO2.

I protect my privacy on my mobile phone with the Bromite browser. On my laptop, all my personal files are deleted at start-up to remove any traces. When I need to use an application that requires Google APIs, the requests are anonymised by MicroG. My residual Google searches are also anonymised by SearX and Mynij.

Here is the list of providers I am using :

The better alternative to the market standard

When comparing an F-35 fighter to a Rafale, it is difficult to say which is better. The F-35 is more stealthy, the Rafale more agile. Comparing my working environment to that offered by Google, Amazon or Microsoft can also lead to opposite conclusions.

Rapid.Space's cloud offers extraordinary performance on ERP databases at an unbeatable price. It is available in China and only uses 8 services to provide the equivalent of 200 services from other providers. With costs ten times less than Google Kubernetes for cloudifying an application and already allowing to deploy 5G private networks, it is for me the best cloud in the world, because it offers essential functions with more flexibility and at a lower cost. Using the cloud of /e/ on top is as simple as Google GSuite and guarantees that I will be able to repatriate it to my own servers at any time: this is optimal for me, because Google GSuite is blocked in China and other countries.

With regards to search engines, Mynij is of course not comparable to Google. The Searx service in the /e/ cloud is merely an overlay on other search engines, including Google's. It is therefore difficult to completely bypass Google, although there are at least five alternative European search engines. However, Mynij offers something unique on the market: the possibility of indexing the Web by yourself without the risk of censorship, dilution or relegation. Up until now, the risk of censorship mainly concerned morally questionable content that is not relevant to a business context. But the risk of dilution increases with the growth of the Web and makes search results less accurate in many contexts such as education. In addition, the risk of relegation through advertising leads taking precedence over search results also leads to deteriorating quality of search. In the face of these risks, Mynij autonomously offers accurate search results with extraordinary speed on a restricted perimeter while anonymising Google results and removing advertising. So for me it is a better search engine.

Strategic autonomy of the cloud is already possible

I am a shareholder in Nexedi, Rapid.Space, Mynij and /e/. My personal experience proves that it is possible, with the means of an SME, to do without GAFAMs in favour of a fully controlled environment. The Polite.one service also demonstrates that it is possible to migrate all of your content from large cloud services to a strategic autonomous environment. There are also hundreds of open source cloud technologies that can be used to extend or adapt this environment.

If our governments or enterprises remain dependent on GAFAM and accept their considerable additional costs, it is because they want to. Their unwillingness to opt for strategic autonomy, even though it is immediately available, is also linked to the disinterest of voters or shareholders who do not always understand the strategic impact of IT choices. The link between the choice of GAFAM and the Pierrucci or Pegasus affair continues to be ignored. People continue to look for technical or subjective pretexts to justify not opting for a supplier that guarantees strategic autonomy at a lower cost.

Perhaps legal action will change the government's behaviour, provided that administrative requirements such as SecnumCloud do not de facto lead to favouring GAFAM technologies. If we succeed in changing the behaviour of the government IT purchasing, the behaviour of the private sector will change as a ripple effect.

The strategic autonomy of electronic components remains to be built

However, the strategic autonomy of the cloud still has a limit: the production of electronic components. Only the US has an autonomous industry covering microprocessors (CPUs), graphics accelerators (GPUs), reprogrammable accelerators (FPGAs), packet switching accelerators (TCAMs) and digital-to-analog converters for 5G (DACs). China (e.g. Zhaoxin, ARM China) and Japan (e.g. Fujitsu) have partial autonomy in the field of microprocessors and graphics accelerators. Apart from microprocessors for industrial applications, embedded graphics accelerators and power transistors for 5G, Europe has become entirely dependent on the US for the fundamental components of virtualised 5G.

Strategic autonomy in terms of the cloud is now limited to access to electronic components. The episode of purchasing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic or the hasty end of the presence of European car manufacturers in Iran remind us of the extent to which we are now all dependent on the goodwill of the United States, which will be able to decide which components are accessible by which company and at what price. The financial efforts made in China to reduce this dependence or the history of TSMC in Taiwan since 1985 illustrate the efforts that would have to be made elsewhere to acquire complete strategic autonomy beyond software.

Meanwhile, the European Union is using 10 billion euros of public funds to reinforce the domination of GAFAM...