croit joins ITE - the Association for IT from Europe

croit Joins ITE - the Association for IT from Europe

We are proud to announce that croit is now a member of ITE – the Association for IT from Europe (Verein zur Förderung von IT aus Europa e.V.). Membership brings us together with organisations from business, research, education, and politics that share one goal: strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty and building an IT landscape that is independent, innovative, and sustainable.

Why we joined

For more than a decade, croit has built its business on open technology. Our platform manages upstream, open-source Ceph on hardware of your choice, keeping your data under your control and free from vendor lock-in. That philosophy – open, independent, and built to last – is exactly what ITE exists to promote on a European scale.

ITE is not a service provider but a results-oriented collective with clear criteria, projects, and a shared direction. It aligns with EU initiatives such as the European Chips Act, and it works to make European IT visible, credible, and future-proof – so that providers can appear as part of a shared European context without giving up their independence. For a company like croit, whose customers increasingly ask where their data lives and who controls it, that mission could not be more relevant.

What ITE stands for

The association organises its work around four pillars that resonate strongly with how we already think about storage:

  • Legitimacy & trust – making the origin, security standards, and value creation of European IT traceable and verifiable.
  • Visibility & market access – helping European providers achieve a collective presence and highlight real alternatives, instead of competing in isolation.
  • Cooperation & capability to act – enabling exchange, working groups, and joint initiatives where individual actors reach their limits.
  • Resilience & future readiness – reducing strategic dependencies and preparing European IT for a dynamic geopolitical and regulatory environment.

What it means for croit customers

Nothing about our product changes – but the principles behind it gain a stronger voice. Digital sovereignty is not an abstract idea for us: it is software-defined storage on open-source Ceph, running on the hardware you choose, with your data staying under your control and within European jurisdiction. Being part of ITE connects us with a wider European network working toward the same outcome, and lets us contribute our storage expertise to it.

To be clear, our membership reflects a shared mission – it is a statement of commitment, not a product certification. What it signals is where we stand: firmly behind open, trustworthy technology and a resilient European IT ecosystem.

Together for Europe’s digital sovereignty

We are looking forward to contributing to ITE’s projects and initiatives and to working alongside fellow members to strengthen Europe’s digital future – secure, trustworthy, and independent. You can learn more about the association at ite-verein.eu.