The Generalitat will invest 481 million in a sovereign public cloud to guarantee digital autonomy

BarcelonaThe Generalitat activates the creation of a "sovereign public cloud" in Catalonia to reinforce Catalan digital autonomy. Salvador Illa's executive opened the bidding for the contract this Tuesday, with an estimated total value of up to 481 million euros during the first eight years, although the objective is to "maintain it once this period has passed". The new infrastructure will allow 40% of the Catalan administration's digital services and data to be hosted to "comply with the highest level of European sovereignty achievable today". According to the Government's forecasts, the service will come into operation during the second half of 2027 and will be fully operational during the third quarter of the next academic year. The Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, highlighted the capacity of the new Catalan "cloud" to "protect and store" citizen data and public services.

Currently, 80% of the Generalitat's services are hosted in a private cloud, which is more secure but technically more limited than what large technology companies offer. This modality serves to protect the data and critical activities of the Catalan administration, such as security forces, healthcare, and economic activities. Others, which require more dynamism, are in the public cloud, which stores 20% of the total volume.

The new infrastructure proposed by the executive has the best of both worlds: it guarantees the security and control standards of a private network but "maintains the same performance and innovation capabilities offered by public clouds". Once the sovereign public cloud is fully operational, it will host 40% of the administration's services and data. As for the rest, 30% will remain in a private cloud and the other 30% will operate from a public cloud to "take advantage of its innovation and scalability capacity".

Without "third-party dependencies"

According to the Generalitat, the proposed sovereign public cloud model is "pioneering" in the European Union for its level of compliance with digital sovereignty standards. The Catalan infrastructure will be the first with its characteristics to achieve SEAL Level 3 of the European cloud sovereignty framework; that is, it is capable of guaranteeing that all data hosted there will be under European control.

Furthermore, the asset will be able to continue operating autonomously "in the face of possible third-party dependencies or external disruptions". In this way, the service provider of the new cloud Catalan will be "subject exclusively to European legislation"; an indicator that, according to the executive, becomes "a guarantee of trust, security, and quality" for the most critical services of the administration.

The new sovereign public cloud must be located in Catalonia, and will connect to the rest of the country's infrastructures to "guarantee information protection, service traceability, and compliance exceeding applicable regulatory requirements". The project is part of the Generalitat de Catalunya's Technological Autonomy Strategy (ESTRATEC), along with other long-term digital initiatives, such as the artificial intelligence gigafactory in Móra la Nova, now close to final selection by the EU institutions. According to the Government, the two infrastructures "mutually reinforce each other and configure a comprehensive model" of digital autonomy and technological competitiveness in the Principality.

Dalmau has framed the initiative within the European technological repositioning in the face of competition between the United States and China. For the minister, the sovereign cloud project "sends a message of forcefulness" from the Generalitat. In statements to the media, he assured that the executive "believes in data protection based on the parameters of European jurisdiction"; always with community technologies.