Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Airbus to migrate critical apps to a sovereign Euro cloud

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. EU Technological Sovereignty

Airbus's shift from US providers like Google Cloud and Palantir to European alternatives is praised as essential for data security and independence amid US political volatility.
"Good, and them get ride of Palantir as a 'data manager'. It's a step in financing EU sovereign cloud providers." -ache
"I don't see this news as anything but a good thing. For every technology out there, the EU needs a native alternative." -flumpcakes
"A necessary step to reduce risk to infrastructure given that the US government has become erratic and has decided it is now anti-Europe." -breve

2. Distrust of US as Ally

US policies under Trump are viewed as hostile to Europe, justifying diversification from American tech akin to avoiding Chinese hardware.
"US says that Europe is their number one enemy. Using American tech is the most risky thing you can do since Trump declared that they are now a hostile enemy." -victorbjorklund
"The US literally wrote a national security strategy describing that it wants to dismantle the EU." -saubeidl
"Seems extremely dangerous to be doing those kinds of things with software from someone politically hostile." -t43562

3. European "Freeloading" on US Defense

Critics argue Europe underinvests in defense, relying on US protection, while defenders counter with economic interdependence and US self-interest.
"The allies are derided for literally freeloading on US military protection while underinvesting in their own defense." -unmole
"For too long European NATO countries have kept token militaries... So our total combat power must increase." -kyboren
"It is not Freeloading, it is colonialism." -jimnotgym


🚀 Project Ideas

EU Cloud Migration Auditor

Summary

  • Automated auditing and migration planning tool that scans AWS/Azure/GCP workloads, identifies lock-in risks (e.g., Lambdas, proprietary DBs), and generates migration paths to EU providers like OVH/Scaleway/Hetzner.
  • Core value: Reduces 80/20 provider search uncertainty ("estimates only an 80/20 chance") and lock-in fears ("if AWS would be to kick me out, I would be absolutely screwed").

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Enterprises like Airbus migrating ERP/CRM/PLM from US clouds
Core Feature Dependency graph analysis + cost/simulated migration blueprints to EU stacks
Tech Stack Terraform, OpenTofu, Falco for scanning; Kubernetes for portability testing
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription ($0.01/GB audited + $500/mo pro)

Notes

  • HN users frustrated with "lock-in" and incomplete EU clouds ("None of these remotely come close"); quotes migration pains directly.
  • High utility for SMEs ("10-100 person companies"); sparks HN debates on sovereignty tools.

Sovereign PLM Data Platform

Summary

  • Open-source alternative to Skywise/Palantir for aerospace data lakes, handling CAD files, diagnostics, and supply chain analytics on EU sovereign clouds.
  • Core value: Replaces "Palantir as a 'data manager'" without US ties, securing industrial designs from espionage ("Airbus is fighting industrial espionage").

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Aerospace/manufacturing firms ditching US-hosted PLM/ERP
Core Feature Federated querying across CSV/SFTP/CSV dumps with EU-cloud native storage
Tech Stack Apache Iceberg, Trino, MinIO on OVH/Hetzner; Rust for secure file handling
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Enterprise support ($10k/year)

Notes

  • Directly addresses "get rid of Palantir" and Skywise complaints ("just a glorified SharePoint"); HN loves open-source sovereignty plays.
  • Practical for Airbus-scale ops; potential for EU funding/discussion.

Hetzner Managed Services Layer

Summary

  • Overlay service adding hyperscaler features (autoscaling LB, managed Kafka/Postgres, IAM) on Hetzner/OVH bare metal/VPS.
  • Core value: Bridges "no European cloud providers" gap ("hosted Postgres, Kafka, K8s"); 50% cheaper with 2x perf ("80% reduction in processing time").

Details

Key Value
Target Audience DevOps teams at EU firms avoiding US hyperscalers
Core Feature API-compatible wrappers for missing services (e.g., autoscaling via API hooks)
Tech Stack Nomad/Operator Framework on Hetzner; Prometheus for monitoring
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Usage-based ($0.05/core-hour)

Notes

  • Fixes "Hetzner is just not in the same product category" critiques; users praise Hetzner pricing ("$5/month").
  • Utility for real migrations; HN would upvote as "bare metal + smarts."

Cloud Cost Hedger

Summary

  • Predictive analytics tool using futures markets (RAM/compute) to hedge cloud contracts, simulating long-term pricing stability.
  • Core value: Mitigates volatility risks ("RAM or storage goes through the roof"); enables EU provider contracts without "too big to fail" fears.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Procurement teams at large EU corps (e.g., Airbus)
Core Feature Integration with RAM futures APIs + contract simulators
Tech Stack Python/QuantLib; Grafana dashboards; OVH API for real-time quotes
Difficulty Low
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium ($99/mo premium forecasts)

Notes

  • Solves "long term stable contracts" pains ("provider not big enough to absorb losses"); quotes futures market directly.
  • Practical for defense spending ramps; fosters HN econ/tech discussions.

EU Workspace Sovereign Suite

Summary

  • Full-featured Google Workspace clone (Docs/Sheets/Drive) self-hostable on EU clouds, with API extensibility.
  • Core value: Replaces "Google Suite" without migration impossibilities ("Try migrating Google Workspace... gave up").

Details

Key Value
Target Audience EU enterprises needing sovereign productivity tools
Core Feature Real-time collab via Yjs/CRDTs + AppScript-like automation
Tech Stack Nextcloud/OnlyOffice on Scaleway; WebAssembly for perf
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Tackles "Google Workspace to EU solution... impossible"; builds on Proton love/gaps ("lack of APIs").
  • HN utility for self-hosters; viral potential in sovereignty threads.

Multi-EU Cloud Orchestrator

Summary

  • Unified control plane abstracting OVH/Scaleway/Hetzner/Telekom into one API for seamless multi-provider failover.
  • Core value: Overcomes fragmented EU clouds ("a few dozen weak consumer markets"); easy SAP/ERP portability.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Airbus-like multinationals seeking "single market" cloud
Core Feature Vendor-agnostic K8s + DB migration wizards
Tech Stack Crossplane + Karpenter; EU Gaia's-X compliance
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Per-cluster ($200/mo)

Notes

  • Addresses "no one that offers anything even close" + language/single market issues; enables "proper single market."
  • Sparks HN debates on federation; real path to hyperscaler parity.

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