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Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

politico.eu

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Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#61

Post by pinkfoot »

Udik wrote: post #43
thamer wrote: post #14

It's no surprise the French government is involved in this. They love these moonshot projects that aim to create the French X for any X that is a successful service by an American company. Qwant[1], launched as "The French Google" with a focus on privacy, serves 10 million searches a day (a ridiculously small number). No one has heard of it, no one uses it, and it's another project with a dream of restoring France to…

I agree completely: as a European, I find these projects pathetic. We need the humility to learn something from the US and create an environment and a framework in which private companies can thrive, instead of being constantly dragged down by bureaucracy, regulations, and a legal-judiciary system eager not to help but to assert its power.

Learn to pay your programmers properly.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#62

Post by lars_francke »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #19

I wonder how much they will be paying their software developers. Right now, a senior developer that really understands cloud and distributed computing can make more than $500,000/yr at Amazon, Azure, or Microsoft. If they want to attract the talent to build this, they are going to have to pay a lot more than they are used to paying for software engineers.

They will form an entity but I'm not sure if it's even going to have developers on the payroll. My understanding (I've been involved with this on the sidelines) is that development is going to happen mostly by the member/participating companies in collaboration.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#63

Post by skissane »

zoobab wrote: post #41

Usual suspects, SAP and Deutsche Telekom, which shows the corruption of our elites.

SAP, for all its many faults, actually has some quite successful products.

Australia's banks have been focused on replacing their legacy IBM mainframe core banking systems (stuff like CSC Hogan) with something more modern and non-mainframe. CBA went with SAP, and their project was very successful. (At least it appears that way from the media, and CBA employees who I've talked to tell me that it isn't just some good PR, it really has been a great success.) By contrast, other banks who went with other vendors had less success – https://www.itnews.com.au/news/suncorps-oracle-core-finally-...

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#64

Post by icelancer »

pinkfoot wrote: post #61
Udik wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely: as a European, I find these projects pathetic. We need the humility to learn something from the US and create an environment and a framework in which private companies can thrive, instead of being constantly dragged down by bureaucracy, regulations, and a legal-judiciary system eager not to help but to assert its power.

Learn to pay your programmers properly.

No kidding. When I was in France I was appalled at the rates they were paying software developers. For a collection of countries that boasts better living standards for people, the comparative gap in pay for technical positions is absurd.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#65

Post by adev_ »

realusername wrote: post #58
adev_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty good summary yes. The idea itself of supporting Europeans alternative to face American and Chinese tech giants is by itself noble (and I think necessary). However, the usual way it is done is a disaster: top-bottom, funding some existing behemoth company that will have no capacity whatsoever to innovate, nor will to do so. But they will get the money because they have good connections. If you think about it, i…

> However, the usual way it is done is a disaster: top-bottom, funding some existing behemoth company that will have no capacity whatsoever to innovate, nor will to do so. But they will get the money because they have good connections. That's the tragedy of the government-backed tech in France. You also have a lot of very skilled tech companies there, but they are not the ones getting government support to grow furth…

>That's the tragedy of the government-backed tech in France. You also have a lot of very skilled tech companies there, but they are not the ones getting government support to grow further.

That's almost an universal tragedy.

The good techies, the innovative engineers or the avant-garde researchers... Typically, the one doing the work... are generally not the one doing outreach, going around in convention, networking, making connections with politicians.... And getting Grants.

On the other side, many conference/convention/"one-man-show" dudes are generally much better to talk than to produce anything useful.

Their is a million of example of that, in both side of the Atlantic ocean.

I would say it is less tragic in America, mainly because there is a Venture Capitalism culture there that Europe do not have.

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#67

Post by icelancer »

thamer wrote: post #14

It's no surprise the French government is involved in this. They love these moonshot projects that aim to create the French X for any X that is a successful service by an American company. Qwant[1], launched as "The French Google" with a focus on privacy, serves 10 million searches a day (a ridiculously small number). No one has heard of it, no one uses it, and it's another project with a dream of restoring France to…

How do they think Google became what it is, or most American companies like Amazon? That the US government funded it and kickstarted them with VC funds?

A company like Airbus makes some sort of sense since the government heavily funds Boeing/Lockheed Martin via defense contracts. But Amazon/Google and VC-backed tech startups and companies?

Not to mention that the pay for software developers and engineers in general in Europe is ridiculously low for a comparable position in the United States, or even Japan. How are they going to retain talent?

Re: Germany, France launch Gaia-X platform in bid for ‘tech sovereignty’

#70

Post by enriquto »

thamer wrote: post #14

It's no surprise the French government is involved in this. They love these moonshot projects that aim to create the French X for any X that is a successful service by an American company. Qwant[1], launched as "The French Google" with a focus on privacy, serves 10 million searches a day (a ridiculously small number). No one has heard of it, no one uses it, and it's another project with a dream of restoring France to…

While it is easy to laugh at these modern "maginot lines" that the french love to build, the concept of "technological sovereignity" seems very reasonable.
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