Dutch central bank ditches AWS and chooses Lidl for European Cloud

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Motivation for switching from AWS

  • Dutch Central Bank (DNB) wants a “European cloud” to reduce dependence on foreign IT providers, viewing US hyperscalers as an operational/sovereignty risk.
  • Some see this as partly political pressure; others stress central bank independence and argue that if the bank calls it a risk, that’s sufficient.
  • Using a German provider is framed as acceptable because it’s still EU, and multi-country dependence is seen as better than reliance on one foreign country.

What “Lidl cloud” actually is

  • The cloud is provided by StackIT, part of the Schwarz Group (owner of Lidl and Kaufland), not by Lidl as a grocery brand.
  • Multiple comments note Schwarz is huge in revenue and headcount; calling it “a discount grocer” is seen as misleading.
  • Under the hood StackIT reportedly uses OpenStack with its own API.
  • Practitioners describe it as solid but still maturing; others complain about poor account onboarding and a rough marketing website.
  • Pricing is said to be higher than low-cost European hosts like Hetzner and “not a discount cloud.”

Sovereignty, EU policy, and alternatives

  • German and European firms are described as sensitive about data leaving the EU.
  • The move is seen in light of an EU “sovereign cloud” procurement framework that also benefits other providers like Scaleway.
  • Some argue critical institutions like central banks should ideally run their own data centers and retain deep in-house infrastructure skills.

Cloud lock-in, self-hosting, and costs

  • Large subthread debates AWS-style managed services vs running VMs/bare metal with open-source tooling.
  • Arguments for self-hosting:
    • Easier to switch providers, avoid deep proprietary lock-in.
    • Cloud providers allegedly charge 5–10× bare-metal costs.
  • Arguments for managed cloud:
    • Small teams avoid hiring multiple specialists (DBA, network, Kubernetes, etc.).
    • Vendors handle 24/7 operations, backups, failover; teams focus on product.
  • Several comments describe a gradual “lock-in funnel” driven by cloud sales and cost-optimization pitches.
  • Some doubt that mid-sized organizations can realistically replicate services like S3/DynamoDB with a few VMs, given the engineering effort.

Reception and skepticism

  • Many are pleased to see a move away from US big tech; others note the contract isn’t yet executed and cloud migrations are hard and often fail.
  • Some criticize that this just swaps US tech giants for EU billionaire-owned empires.
  • Thread also contains extensive humor about “discount grocer clouds” and supermarket-themed cloud branding.