RIPE NCC is planning a full rebuild of its technical infrastructure from now until 2028. In the process, it is moving away from US-based cloud hyperscalers toward a self-hosted, independent setup. The project will cost an estimated 5 million euros and is driven by geopolitical concerns, EU regulatory obligations, and growing demands on core internet services like RPKI.
The organisation announced the plans this week in a blog post by Director General Hans Petter Holen, based on his presentation at the RIPE NCC Services Working Group during RIPE 92. RIPE NCC manages internet number resources for over 20,000 members across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
This step actually dates back to 2019, when RIPE NCC launched a ‘Cloud First’ initiative. It was later refined through its Cloud Strategy Framework in 2021 and revised again in 2023. However, the geopolitical landscape has changed significantly since then. Uncertainty around US-based hyperscalers, combined with growing regulatory scrutiny, has prompted a rethink. RIPE NCC currently uses AWS, Google, Cloudflare, and others for supporting services, admittedly all with EU data residency, but the plan is now to reduce that dependence significantly for core systems.
Not a return to the old ways
Simply rolling back to pre-cloud infrastructure is not an option, Holen makes clear. Stakeholder expectations around security, stability, and resilience have grown considerably. RPKI, the routing security technology RIPE NCC operates and which received a SOC 2 Type II assurance report in January 2026, has seen significant uptake, raising the bar for what members expect from the underlying systems. EU regulations add another layer, as RIPE NCC is preparing for NIS2 compliance. The directive requires strict risk management, incident reporting, and business continuity controls for digital infrastructure entities.
The rebuild will address hardware that has reached or passed end-of-life, data centre footprint and geographic redundancy, virtualisation platforms with minimal vendor lock-in, and service interdependencies that have accumulated over more than 20 years of infrastructure evolution. The migration is described as a greenfield deployment, a clean-slate approach rather than a patchwork upgrade.
5 million euros and a funding puzzle
The estimated cost is 5 million euros in combined CAPEX and OPEX spread over 2026 to 2028, effectively returning RIPE NCC’s capital expenditure to levels last seen between 2010 and 2020. Funding will come from a mix of internal cost savings, membership fees, and potentially the organisation’s Clearing House Reserve, a financial buffer designed to support stability and flexibility.
Holen acknowledges member sensitivity around fees: “We are fully aware that some members are concerned by the level of fees they have been paying in recent years and do not wish to see further growth in the RIPE NCC’s budget.” The Executive Board will discuss the path forward at its meeting next week.
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