Digital infrastructure in Denmark (and the rest of Europe) is largely split between an enterprise sector with hundreds of small, inefficiently run data centers using off-the-shelf software and hardware (from legacy enterprise vendors like HPE, Dell, IBM), and a cloud sector with highly efficient data centers, run by a handful of foreign tech giants using proprietary software and hardware (built to order in Taiwan).

Northcloud's mission was to unite local IT industry and the public sector behind the goal of combining many small units (local, corporate data centers) into a few larger infrastructure units (national data centers), running as efficiently and profitably as the cloud sector, revitalizing local tech innovation.

The core innovations of Northcloud were a novel business model for digital infrastructure, and an open source technology stack, combining advanced service packaging and delivery with innovative and scalable hardware orchestration.

However, the enterprise market is shaped by IT departments who naturally prioritize the daily workings of their own, local organization over combined, national efficiency, whereas the cloud market is shaped by incumbents with almost infinite lobbying and marketing budgets. Without seed capital and some sort of official approval, a project like this cannot succeed - the barriers to entry into the market are simply too high.

Existing accounts have been migrated to origo.io.

TL;DR

The Northcloud project did not receive funding from Innovation Fund Denmark. As a consequence we're retiring the project and the Northcloud brand.

We'll be back