Airbus’s Bold Move to European Sovereign Cloud

Airbus is exploring a significant transition in its operations by shifting critical functions to a European-based sovereign cloud. As of now, they are searching for the right service provider, which presents a unique challenge. Airbus’s goal is to move some of their on-premises operations to the cloud. They prefer European vendors, which keeps them away from major U.S. cloud providers.

Catherine Jestin, the EVP of Digital Services at Airbus, shared that the company is preparing a migration tender. This involves moving significant workloads such as ERP systems, manufacturing execution, CRM systems, and the management of aircraft design lifecycle processes. The sensitivity of the data concerning national and European security is pushing Airbus to look for a European partner. Yet, there’s concern about whether European providers can handle the scale required.

Balancing Security with Scale

The CLOUD Act obliges U.S. providers to grant data access to U.S. authorities, which is a concern for Airbus while using U.S. cloud services. Jestin estimates there’s an 80% chance they’ll find a suitable European provider, given the tender will be announced soon. They’re hoping to finalize a choice by the summer, with expectations the contract will be over a decade-long and worth more than €50 million.

Airbus currently partners with tech leaders like Google and Microsoft and is streamlining its data centers. Moreover, Airbus’s new partnership with Thales and Leonardo shows their commitment to expand in cloud infrastructure, highlighting the need for robust European cybersecurity measures.

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