Ask HN: Anyone working on bringing software back from US clouds?
I am a freelancer from EU and I want to specialize in migrating software back on-prem or to traditional EU hosting providers.
However, with all the talk about Digital Sovereignty and Strategic Autonomy, I found few real projects that require engineering expertise.
I feel like everyone is just trying to squeeze money from EU funds on this hot topic, but none actually believes such migrations can be done, so all money is consumed on policy issues, not the actual work.
We are collectively sitting on our hands, waiting until Trump administration is over and relations between EU and US are back to normal.
Are there people out there really doing such migrations? Technology associations that provide support? Businesses that grow in that niche?
Most of the software I write now is for personal use and household automation. This software does things unrelated to content and/or data. It’s all about automation, user experience, and solving real problems that I actually have. As such I don’t really need cloud hosting for any of it.
Check out Tensor9. They package cloud apps to run on prem.
Pulling AI workloads out of the cloud is gaining traction. There could be a lot of upside for someone who develops the skills needed to move cloud apps on prem or in a privately controlled cloud.
Have you read these articles by DHH, of Ruby on Rails and Basecamp fame? He's also based in the EU so it might be helpful to read.
https://world.hey.com/dhh/why-we-re-leaving-the-cloud-654b47...
https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-have-left-the-cloud-251760fb
https://world.hey.com/dhh/our-switch-to-kamal-is-complete-8e...
These articles provide motivation and example, but again, this is just one relatively small company.
Where are thousands of thousands of others following lead?
They're not. Most companies, teams, people don't care about this.
I believe DHH is US-based. He went back to the EU during the Malibu fires, but I believe he's back in California now.
To be more useful, I hear great things about Hetzner amongst my EU engineer friends.
https://www.hetzner.com/
I've been using Hetzner for the last 15 years and even did a migration from a cloud provider to Hetzner once.
It was for financial reasons mostly, although HR considerations like the need to keep good engineers happy played a role.
Still, such projects were sparse and are even more rare now.