Merz: Google Cloud is sovereign enough for intelligence agencies

underseacables

After clicking on the link, there is a pop-up: "Data processing by advertising providers including personalised advertising with profiling Consent required for free use" Yeah, no thanks. https://archive.ph/On36E

zoobab

Germany is an Atlantist country, in exchange of military protection. Buy American First!

DarkNova6

And I thought no chancellor could be worse than Scholz...

swerner

On the same day as this dropped: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50429426

andor

If I understand this correctly, he’s not talking about a public cloud, but rather about Google-developed solutions for an air-gapped internal platform. Google have had several public job listings for “sovereign cloud” teams. There are a few other companies that offer something similar in the enterprise space (e.g. VMware/Broadcom for the platform part), and a lot of them are from the US as well. Would it be better to buy European? Certainly from an autonomy point of view. But that’s not the only factor in purchasing decisions and Google probably still have better access to talent.

iamnothere

Obligatory reminder: Merz once worked for BlackRock as a lobbyist, in charge of expanding its influence within Germany

spwa4

Sounds very German government, I must say. (Merz, the German chancellor is an ex-Blackrock lobbyist) BlackRock lobbyist: We MUST have sovereign suppliers! We simply can't do without! NOT possible. NO compromises will be made under any circumstances. It is simply intolerable! NO interference! (2 months later) BlackRock lobbyist: At this point it would be an absolute betrayal of German industry, employees and even people in general to change the rules! We would never do that. We know the German people depend on us to make the right choice. Journalist: So that'll mean you have to spend 100 euro ... BlackRock lobbyist: We hereby declare that shady CIA-dress-style guy with the golden "I love Putin" badge offical public-sector supplier. Journalist: Chancellor, why is there a stack of 100 dollar bills with Trump's face on them sticking out of your back pocket? Looks like a lot of money. (Look up "Gerhard Schroder", and specifically his current employer, Vladimir Putin). Actually, come to think of it, it looks like fake money. BlackRock lobbyist: I call upon the right to be forgotten! (nervously calls his actual employer asking how fake the money is) In case anyone failed to notice: France and Germany both have governments led by people who were effectively management at huge US banks.

ecshafer

In the US you will see a lot of TS/SCI jobs posted for big tech, mainly around DC/Maryland/NOVA, building these clouds for the gov. They are essentially separate business units for federal work, these clouds might use the same tech as the larger ones but are totally separate. It would make total sense that the equivalent could exist in Europe, where their defense sector employees build "Google Cloud" with cleared workers in Europe and have controls to keep data there.

ggeorg

“I have a high level of trust in our agencies that the data we have there is safe and protected, ..." And why wouldn't he?! German spy scandal threatens national security < https://www.dw.com/en/german-spy-scandal-threatens-national-... > Cyberattack in Berlin: 1.4 million files on the dark web < https://www.dw.com/en/cyberattack-in-berlin-14-million-files... > Ccc talk in German on the latter: MRMCD2026 - Warum Berlin gehackt wurde und wie desolat gehandelt wird < https://youtube.com/watch?v=2hx7FrF31S0 > All of this is such a big clusterfuck. German officials... I just can't take it anymore.