Why this exists
Over thirty years in European and American technology companies, twenty of them inside an American infrastructure vendor, selling and delivering compute, storage and networking into European organisations. That is the vantage point this publication is written from: I watched a great many European procurement decisions from the side of the table that was supplying the equipment.
What became obvious over those years is that the sovereignty question is almost never argued at the point it is actually decided. It is argued in policy papers and conference panels, and it is decided in a contract clause about where the support organisation sits, or in a tender that does or does not name a European supplier. Those two conversations rarely meet, and almost nobody writes down what happened in the second one.
So that is what this is. Monitored and tracked daily with a monthly newsletter issue, summarising what moved, where the money went, and which way each thing pushed Europe's dependence on suppliers, systems and law it does not control. Every claim traced to the document it came from, and marked with how firmly it stands up.
Background
Norwegian, based in Malmö. Before Sweden: Trondheim, Oslo and Copenhagen.
In the industry since 1993. The first seven years as an IT consultant and sales specialist, across IT and telecom products, storage, and the retail and wholesale channels. Then Song Networks from 2001 to 2003, as Nordic key account manager for its solutions portfolio: co-location, hosting, and managed and unmanaged services.
Twenty years at Dell Technologies, from 2003 to 2024. Transactional and relationship sales first, then technical sales, then Nordic and Northern European brand and field marketing, then a long run in the Center of Competence doing product, portfolio and programme management. The part most relevant here was the last of it: setting up the Center of Competence for Apex, Dell's compute, storage and networking as-a-service portfolio, for Europe and APJ. As-a-service is where the questions this publication tracks get sharp, because the customer stops owning the hardware and starts renting a relationship, and every sovereignty property then depends on the contract rather than on the loading dock.
A shorter run at Secunia, in software vulnerability intelligence, sits in the middle of the Dell years.
Independent since October 2023, through RB Consult AB: technology and AI strategy, technical writing, product and programme insight, and bid-process work.
Independence
RB Consult AB takes consulting work in the technology industry, which is the same industry this publication reports on. Two commitments follow from that, and they are worth stating plainly rather than leaving to be assumed.
Where an engagement touches an organisation named in an issue, that is disclosed in the issue, at the item.
Nothing in this publication is sponsored, and no organisation named in it has any say over whether it is named, what marker it carries, or what the accompanying note says. The markers score developments against what changed, one at a time. They do not aggregate into a ranking of anybody, and they are not for sale.
Corrections
Corrections with a primary source attached are applied and credited. Send the document and the provision, and if it says what you say it says, the entry changes and your name goes on the change unless you ask otherwise.
Every issue published here is listed under my name, and Method and scoring sets out how anything gets read, graded and counted. I am on LinkedIn as Reidar Balstad.