Is your data truly sovereign?
The US CLOUD Act gives American authorities the legal power to demand data from US-headquartered cloud providers — regardless of where that data is physically stored. Your European data sitting in a Frankfurt data center run by an American hyperscaler? Still reachable by US law enforcement.
This is not a theoretical concern. It is the reason Pepijn Oomen and his team at Redpill Linpro are building something different.
Who is Pepijn Oomen
Pepijn is a Platform Engineer, certified Kubestronaut, and Container Technology Solution Manager at Redpill Linpro. Operations by day, development by night — he is the kind of engineer who lives and breathes Linux, Kubernetes, and Open Source.
Pepijn is a Platform Engineer, certified Kubestronaut, and Container Technology Solution Manager at Redpill Linpro — where he has been for over 14 years, progressing from Senior Systems Consultant to Team Lead to his current role driving container technology strategy. He also serves as a Platform Engineer at Amedia, one of Norway’s largest media companies.
With a background in Mathematics from the University of Amsterdam and decades of experience in Linux, infrastructure security, and automation, Pepijn is not chasing trends — he is building the infrastructure that Europe needs.
What sets Pepijn apart is not just his technical depth. It is his mission: building a genuinely European cloud alternative that does not compromise on sovereignty, sustainability, or performance.
Connect with Pepijn on LinkedIn.
The Redpill Linpro Nordic Cloud
Pepijn and his team are building the Redpill Linpro Nordic Cloud — a secure, fully compliant alternative for the Nordics and beyond. Here is why it is a game-changer:
True digital sovereignty
Operating out of three localized data centers in the Oslo region, the Nordic Cloud ensures your infrastructure and data stay strictly under European jurisdiction and GDPR control. No American parent company. No CLOUD Act exposure. No ambiguity about who can access your data.
This is not sovereignty theater — putting a European logo on an American cloud. This is the real thing: European company, European data centers, European legal jurisdiction, European operational control.
For organizations dealing with EU compliance requirements, this is exactly the kind of infrastructure that regulators want to see.
100% green energy
Running a cloud does not have to cost the earth. The Nordic Cloud is powered entirely by Norway’s renewable energy — primarily hydroelectric. This is a massive win for digital sustainability and GreenOps.
When your compliance team asks about the environmental impact of your infrastructure, “100% renewable” is the answer they want to hear. Norway’s energy grid is one of the cleanest in the world, making it an ideal location for sustainable cloud operations.
Built on Kubernetes and Open Source
The Nordic Cloud is not a proprietary black box. It is built on:
- Kubernetes — standard orchestration, no vendor lock-in
- Linux — the foundation of everything
- Open Source — transparency, auditability, community-driven security
- Highly available architecture — three data centers for redundancy
This means your workloads are portable. If you ever need to move — to another European provider, to on-premises, or to a hybrid setup — your Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and CI/CD pipelines work everywhere.
The numbers are staggering
A recent analysis revealed that 90% of Norwegian municipalities have their email under US jurisdiction — 301 out of 357 on Microsoft 365 alone. Only 10 use a Norwegian provider. Municipal email carries citizen correspondence, health and social services data, and sensitive policy discussions — all routed through infrastructure that a foreign government can legally access under the CLOUD Act.
As Simon Besteman, Director of Public Affairs at the Dutch Cloud Community, puts it: “Hosted in EU is not sovereign. Sovereignty is not geography — it is control.”
This is exactly the gap that Pepijn and Redpill Linpro are filling.
Why sovereign cloud matters now
The digital sovereignty conversation has shifted from “nice to have” to “board-level priority” in the last two years:
- Regulatory pressure — GDPR enforcement is getting stricter, and the EU AI Act adds new data residency requirements
- Geopolitical risk — US-EU data transfer frameworks remain fragile and legally challenged
- Supply chain concerns — organizations want to reduce single-vendor dependencies on American hyperscalers
- Public sector requirements — government agencies increasingly mandate European-only infrastructure
Pepijn and Redpill Linpro are not just talking about this trend — they are building the infrastructure that makes it real.
The Kubestronaut factor
Being a Kubestronaut — someone who has passed all five CNCF Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD, CKS, KCNA, KCSA) — is not just a badge. It represents a depth of Kubernetes expertise that very few people have. When Pepijn designs cloud infrastructure, it is informed by hands-on mastery of every layer of the Kubernetes stack.
This matters because sovereign cloud is not just about where your data sits. It is about how your platform is designed, operated, and secured. Getting Kubernetes right at scale — with multi-tenancy, network policies, pod security, and supply chain verification — requires exactly the kind of expertise Pepijn brings.
Catch Pepijn at KubeCon EU 2026
Pepijn is in Amsterdam this week for Cloud Native Rejekts and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU 2026. If you want to discuss Kubernetes, platform engineering, or how to achieve real digital autonomy, track him down in the hallways.
Learn more about the European cloud initiative at redpill-linpro.com.
This is part of my KubeCon Europe 2026 Leaders series. I will be at KubeCon EU 2026 speaking about Multi-tenant GPUs on Bare Metal OpenShift AI. Check out the full side events guide.
