These days are full of uncertainty. A new kind of uncertainty we have not had for decades, or perhaps even longer. It is an uncertainty that comes from unfamiliar places and influences, things that we have considered immutable for generations. It not only influences things that are abstract and far away, but today's uncertainty touches our very personal lives.
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Of course, I am talking about the continued unrest in the Middle East, massive movements on the very borders of the European Union, and the phenomenally unexpected position that the United States of America is assuming. In this context, organizations, both large and small, are affected and are prompted to reconsider things that have always, especially “always” in the comparably short lifespan of the IT industry, been obvious. We simply use the services that are available to us, and never really think of where it all comes from, as it has never been an issue.
More and more organizations, not only in Europe, but also on the African continent and in the Asia Pacific region, are wondering if it wouldn't make sense to be just a bit more selective on where to get services from or run software. And even though many of the major, global services companies are making provisions, our global hyperscalers are opening sovereign data centers outside of the United States, and many more similar initiatives are happening, the call for transparency and independence continues.
One of the questions we hear being asked more frequently is: “What is your European presence?".
On Tuesday, September 9th, in the Cavendish Conference Center near St. Pancras in London, PGDay.UK 2025 took place. In this setting, I was privileged to meet my friend Bruce Momjian again and attend his talk “Future PostgreSQL challenges.” Apart from the fact that it is always inspiring to hear him speak about PostgreSQL and the magnitude of what this project has turned into, there was a very sharp point that pertained to the topic of this blog post.
In this talk, Bruce explored all of the things that are, or could be, a danger to PostgreSQL. One of the perceived dangers is, in fact, how incredibly distributed the governance of the project is. There is no single governing body. But wait, if that is true, there is also no specific non-European governing body, and following that line of thought, PostgreSQL can also be regarded as "Made in Europe".
But why does this comparison hold?
As a community-governed, open source project, no one owns PostgreSQL. The PostgreSQL global Development Group (PGDG) has nothing, and it does not answer to anyone. It should be noted that the PostgreSQL Community Association (PGCA), though based in Canada, is a non-profit organization to hold and protect the Postgres brand assets globally, including domain names and trademarks for the PostgreSQL Project.
On the other hand, PostgreSQL is owned by all of us. We can download it, compile it, change its sources, and make it do “other things” than it was designed for. This is fully backed and endorsed by the most liberal open source license available; TPL or “The PostgreSQL License”. It has no back doors, no loopholes, no intentional flaws that allow for exploitation. Simply because there are too many developers, from a very diverse background and geographic orientation, involved in the project for it to ever make sense to have such (political) preferences.
Not only does this make PostgreSQL the most secure database, it also automatically becomes the most independent piece of data management engineering you can ever have. This allows for redefining what security and privacy compliance in conjunction with data management should look like, on the one hand.
On the other hand, it creates the most reliable way to run your systems.
An increasingly strong sound is to be heard.
Europe should be at least able to fend for itself. As we have heard for many years, “made in America” is a phrase that resonates with Americans, associated with iconic brands such as Ford Motors, General Electric, and Harley-Davidson. We now hear “made in Europe". Things we should be proud of and things that give the world something to choose from.
We, as well as the continents surrounding us, as stated before, the African Continent, the APAC region, are looking for alternatives to the obvious American choices in databases, cloud computing, and solutions alike. We need to answer that question, as this allows us to find our own feet again and “get off our lazy bums", after being hushed into a slumber in the many easy years behind us.
No longer simply expect others to solve puzzles for us, but spring into action and take on the challenge!
And this is where I see a massive task for us, here at CYBERTEC. As a dedicated PostgreSQL company, focused on the community distribution of PostgreSQL, which, as we saw earlier, from the foundation of its community upward, is an absolute sovereign technology. With our roots both firmly in the Austrian soil, as well as in the PostgreSQL community, we give a 100% “made in Europe” touch to PostgreSQL. This foundational DNA is highlighted by our CEO being a recognized PostgreSQL contributor, and even our CMO is a well-respected PostgreSQL community member.
CYBERTEC strives to create to offer organizations of all shapes and sizes, across industries and verticals, to adopt a technological stack that allows them to shape an independent and open stack for their most critical business applications.
A good example of this is our close collaboration with x-cellent technologies, the powerhouse behind metalstack.cloud. With this combination, you can leverage a fully open, Kubernetes-based PostgreSQL deployment platform with unparalleled performance characteristics, fully European, open, and independent. Through CPN (CYBERTEC Partner Network), there is an ever-growing selection of technologies and end-to-end solutions available to create your own, bespoke, Made in Europe IT and data management infrastructure.
For some time, I have been wondering how to emphasize the importance of this specific differentiation that CYBERTEC brings to the industry. The American nation unites behind the “Star Spangled Banner”, which is the pride of the American Flag. Of course, we have the European flag we could rally behind, but that emotion is not so intensely part of our everyday existence.
And there it was, the “Made in Europe” banner.
Stability - Reliability - Unity. Words we can fully commit to, in all their aspects and meanings. When it comes to data and data management, these are the key objectives you look for. Things that PostgreSQL brings you and that CYBERTEC vows to hold, when it comes to our services and products, but also in the manner we work with our customers.
A thank you goes out to the team at Holm Security, based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Check out their website and the initiative at https://www.holmsecurity.com/made-in-europe
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