UpCloud Connect: Shaping Europe’s Cloud Future

As Europe faces increasing pressure to define its own digital future, there’s a growing urgency to build a strong, independent cloud force that can stand as a viable alternative to U.S. hyperscalers. This isn’t just about infrastructure — it’s about data sovereignty, data protection, transparency, and ensuring that European innovation drives significant growth on the world stage.

“With American hyperscalers, the infrastructure might look technically sovereign, but ownership still matters — it’s a company. For highly regulated businesses like ours serving customers that are critical to the society, data autonomy and location are essential. Political and commercial shifts can change the game overnight, so we need transparency, predictability, and a more controlled way to run our services.” – Jussi Jääskeläinen, Chief Architect ICT Products at Telia

At UpCloud, we believe the future of the European cloud lies in open source-driven innovation and infrastructure choices that respect national laws, local ownership, and regional trust. We’re actively bringing leading European organizations together to shape the next phase of Europe’s digital sovereignty through UpCloud Connect – a series of events laser focussed on European businesses striving to scale and grow securely in an increasingly uncertain world.

UpCloud Connect

Earlier this month, we hosted UpCloud Connect in our Helsinki office, alongside strategic partners Elastisys and Pionative, and valued customers Telia and TAGGRS, to explore the future of secure, scalable, and sovereign European cloud infrastructure. Together, we dived into collaborations that are fueling real-world success and long-term resilience – actively empowering end-users to grow securely in today’s shifting geopolitical and regulatory landscape.

“With shifting alliances in the EU, it’s clearer than ever that we need a truly European cloud offering, and that’s exactly what we’re building together with UpCloud.”

– Simon Ekman, VP of Sales at Elastisys

Here’s what we learned:

From Clusters to Compliance: Pionative & TAGGRS in Action

Our first panel opened with a dive into the origins of the partnership between UpCloud, Pionative, and TAGGRS— highlighting  how this collaborative ecosystem was built and what makes it thrive. From day one, the shared focus has been secure growth. We discussed:

• The initial challenges TAGGRS faced and how the partnership helped overcome them
• How UpCloud Kubernetes Service (UKS) simplifies containerised deployments and has directly benefited TAGGRS’ scalability
• The importance of data sovereignty, proactive security, and regulatory compliance — and how European businesses like TAGGRS are navigating this complex landscape

“Our main customer base is Europe, where concerns around data sovereignty are growing—especially in light of the U.S. Cloud Act and a potential second Trump administration. Larger companies are coming to us with more privacy centric demands about where their data lives. That’s why we made the move to a European cloud. We’re proud to be the first to offer this kind of solution as a truly European provider—it’s quickly becoming a must-have.” – Niels Olivier, CEO at TAGGRS

As the demand for containerisation continues to rise, so does the need for infrastructure that can scale smoothly and securely. For Pionative, selecting a cloud partner wasn’t just about ticking boxes—it was about finding a provider with the technology and reliability to meet real-world demands at scale.

“When we partnered with TAGGRS, we needed a solution that could support a serious scale—18,000 containers at the time—and continue to grow with us. Today, that number has more than doubled, with 40,000 containers running across five Kubernetes clusters. Supporting this kind of scale requires more than just raw capacity; it demands reliable technology, responsive support, and flexibility. We evaluated several European providers, and UpCloud stood out as by far the most professional and best option.” – Pieter van der Giessen, Co-Founder at Pionative

The conversation also looked ahead: where containerisation is going, how UpCloud Kubernetes Service (UKS) continues to evolve, and how European organisations can stay resilient in uncertain times. As Hijmen Fokker, Co-Founder at Pionative, put it:

“We’re really happy to see more European cloud providers pop up with Managed Kubernetes services. UpCloud’s Managed Kubernetes Service can handle a lot of load and we are very happy with the stability.” – Hijmen Fokker, Co-Founder at Pionative

Telia and Yet Another Cloud?

In our second session, we were joined by Telia and Elastisys for a candid discussion on multicloud strategies, Kubernetes workflows, and the benefits of a sovereign cloud — including how Elastisys’ Managed Welkin solution supports Telia in parallel with UpCloud infrastructure.

“Our B2B applications at Telia don’t fit into one single box, they need a mix of capabilities bridging Telco and IT workloads. UpCloud managed to meet all our demanding requirements. It’s a great match, particularly for the solutions we deliver to our customers. We need infrastructure that’s reliable, compliant, cost-effective – and simply works for our developers, so we can focus on the application layer, where we deliver the value to our customers.” – Jussi Jääskeläinen, Chief Architect ICT Products.

Key points included:

• Why multicloud isn’t just about redundancy — it’s about flexibility, control, and future-proofing your infrastructure.
• The growing momentum toward multicloud adoption with European flavors, especially in response to today’s geopolitical pressures.
• How partnerships allow enterprise-scale organisations like Telia blend best-of-breed cloud capabilities while maintaining a strong stance on data sovereignty and other national requirements especially in regulated telco business.

“As a Swedish company partnering with Finnish-based UpCloud, we’re not subject to U.S. surveillance laws, which gives our customers peace of mind. Our managed services allow them to focus entirely on the application layer—where they create real value—while we ensure the infrastructure meets the needs of both developers and end users. We invest heavily in compliance documentation to help customers meet frameworks like NIS2, ISO 27001, and DORA.” – Simon Ekman, VP of Sales at Elastisys

What’s Next?

We’ll be sharing more content soon, including session recordings and follow-up conversations.
Missed the event? Stay tuned on our channels for ways to join the movement.

Let’s keep shaping Europe’s cloud future — together.

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