Rapid.Space is a Fully Open Edge Cloud Provider and a 5G infrastructure vendor.

Rapid.Space offers two main products: the EdgePOD and the Open Radio Station (ORS).

The EdgePOD is a compact cloud-in-a-box server which can can be deployed at the edge in offices, factories or in data centres. It includes Rapid.Space open source edge cloud software. The EdgePOD gives you full control over your data and infrastructure and makes you totally independent from third-party providers. Rapid.Space EdgePOD NXP is in addition based on a European CPU potentially immune to US or China extraterritorial laws.

Rapid.Space comes with open source alternative to conventional office suites (Microsoft 365), VMs (VMware), Big Data (Palantir), video streaming service (Microsoft Teams). Most of the alternatives we use are developed in the European Union by developers who highly value privacy and trade secret. Everything thus exists in Europe and is already commercially available in terms of edge or cloud.

The Open Radio Station (ORS) is a 4G/5G infrastructure with RAN (eNodeB, gNodeB), embedded core network (epc, 5gc, ims) and edge computing services (local messaging, push-to-talk, video streaming, proxy, education library, IoT buffering, etc.). It is suitable for both private networks (police, factories, transportations) and public networks (coverage extension, white areas).

Rapid.Space key characteristic is its Fully Open approach. Our solutions are entirely based on Open Source Software (eg. SlapOS) or licensed source software (eg. Amarisoft). You can thus copy, customise and improve our code. We use Open Hardware (such as Open Compute Servers).You can thus copy, customise and improve our infrastructure by knowing how it was built. And we manage our services through Open Process. You can thus copy, customise and improve our services by knowing how it is operated.

In terms of features, a study from Nexedi showed that we cover 80% of AWS cloud services with our 8 cloud services. And we provide unique edge computing features for real time, industrial automation and deployment in space that no other edge cloud technology currently provides.

Note: Rapid.Space EdgePOD can also be provided with US CPU (AMD) or Chinese CPU (Hygon) immune to European laws.

Everything exists in Europe in terms of digital technologies and is ready to be used.

Governments need sovereign infrastructure. It is available with European companies that are profitable and are ready to give entire access to their technology.

In the cloud sector, we already demonstrated the readiness of 10 Government European cloud solutions at the Luxembourg Internet days in 2020, including Rapid.Space, Scaleway and Clever Cloud.

The European Cloud Industrial Alliance (EUCLIDIA) also presented more than 100 European providers and over 300 successful cloud technology solutions during its event "Towards A Resilient Cloud Infrastructure in Europe" in Brussels in 2022. Most of them are now gathered in cloudrepo.eu, a repository listing more than 200 European cloud technologies and their success cases. Additionally, more than 50% of AWS external technology acquisitions are European. Everything exists in Europe. 

In the Open Source sector, afs.one has done a similar operation by listing all European Open Source solutions available. 

Nexedi, the parent company of Rapid.Space, is a relevant example showing that everything can be done with independent, European Open Source technologies. Nexedi has been using exclusively European Open Source software for 25 years and successfully serves customers such as Airbus, Stellantis, Toyota and SANEF.

Everything exists in Europe, but the widespread adoption of European technologies is undermined by a concentration of destructive policies:

Redeveloping what already exists

In France, the Directorate for Digitisation of the French State (DINUM) has developed "La Suite", an Open Source, sovereign collaborative suite, as an alternative to the proprietary suites still widely used by French civil servants. Public money was used to develop an office suite that competes directly with existing offers from the private sector such as Fab8, including multiple open source suites created by French small businesses.

Subsidising U.S. technologies

DINUM has been implementing a Kubernetes-based cluster that is subsidised by the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), instead of using existing European technologies such as SlapOS or Clever Cloud.

Overregulating market access

Private competitors have to go through a huge amount of regulations such as SecNumCloud or the CRA which costs several years and millions of euros to implement, yet do not improve digital independence. Such regulations do not apply to DINUM, meaning that the French government exempts itself from the regulation it put in place but imposes it to private sector products. This creates an unfair competitive advantage.

And if that was not enough, latest decisions of French government exclude from public tenders all suppliers that are not approved by ANSSI for SecNumCloud or by DINUM for yet-to-be defined label. Conflict of interest is now added to bureaucratic impossibiity.

Speak European, buy American

DINUM uses mostly FISA software such as Microsoft Office instead of using operational European collaborative suites like Fab8.

A single directorate in France therefore embodies the four deadly policies for European SMEs. The public sector competes with European SMEs by re-creating similar offers with public money, to which no regulations apply, and by subsidising their competitors' technologies, usually not European.

European SMEs are left with only two choices: export outside the EEA and grow, or die.

These policies are not limited to France and are strikingly similar in most European countries and institutions. 

In Germany, the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND) has sponsored the "Sovereign Cloud Stack", which consists in redeveloping a cloud technology that already existed in Europe.

In Telecoms, the European Commission has subsidised projects to implement vRAN using U.S. inspired O-RAN standards rather than European SimpleRAN standard.

The European Commission also created harsher regulation for European technologies, especially Open Source. For instance, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) cost is much lower for a proprietary solution from a big corporation like Microsoft than for a small European distribution. Some businesses such as the small British software editor Qtrac have already ceased all sales into Europe, Qtrac's CEO Mark Summerfield saying "the CRA demands that even the smallest one-person software company must achieve the same compliance as a software giant like Microsoft.", "the CRA lacks proper provision for small businesses, exposing them to considerable legal risk, extra bureaucracy, and the additional risks of predatory legal action make selling into Europe extremely unattractive."

Eventually, the European Commission encourages the adoption of European technologies but breaches its own EU data rules by relying heavily on Microsoft services for its day-to-day work. This dependence has even triggered fears among its civil servants. However, the European Commission still supports Microsoft and even litigates against people claiming that the Commission should use European software.

European SMEs are, again, left with only two choices: Export outside the EEA and grow, or die.

What could be done to remedy this situation ?

Instead of redeveloping what exists, improve what already exists. Brasil launched the "Portal do Software Público Brasileiro" 15 years ago to support the local software industry.  It was created to share software of public interest and treat software as a public good. A budget was meant to be allocated based on how many people use the software, which would have been a useful way to match supply and demand for a list of software that qualifies for certain public software criteria. This process allows the local software industry to grow and to be funded according to its needs.

Instead of subsidising U.S. technologies, put in place strict sovereignty requirements in tenders or in subsidies that would automatically increase market shares for European technologies. Such procedures are already in place in some EU institutions like the European Defence Fund and could easily be extended to other cases.

Instead of overregulating market access, exempt SMBs from heavy regulation procedures and standards under 20 million euros income. This will unleash their potential, give them an advantage and make them grow.

Instead of speaking European but buying American technologies, buy European technologies. Cultural exception could be applied to software just like it was applied to the cinema and music industries in France through quotas. Software is a creation protected by copyright, making it fully eligible to be included in mandatory quotas of European software in digital services sold in Europe.

Everything exists in Europe and there are solutions to make European technologies thrive.

Until more effective policies for European SMEs are implemented, Rapid.Space will do the following.

We will litigate against the destructive policies that hinder European technologies and SMEs. This includes using public money to redevelop what has already been done before as it has become too common and too easy. It also includes using software that does not protect effectively trade secrets or intellectual property. This kind of practises must stop.

We will increase sales and export outside the EEA. The current level of regulation in Europe leaves little to no hope of growth inside the EEA. Rapid.Space has to find new markets abroad to survive.

We will address the EU markets through partners that are ready to handle the enormous cost of EU regulation.