Supply: IDC’s 2025 Worldwide Digital Sovereignty Survey (Aug. 2025).
IDC
That shift has pressured distributors to reply. As curiosity in digital sovereignty has grown, European know-how distributors have sought to capitalize on demand.
SAP has launched its personal Sovereign Cloud service, with the choice to make use of its cloud supplier subsidiary, Delos, and plans to take a position €20 billion (about $23.5 billion US) in its sovereign cloud. The German enterprise software program vendor has additionally partnered with European AI agency Mistral to create the “first full AI stack for Europe.”
Different software program distributors are taking an identical strategy. Nextcloud, for instance, has partnered with German cloud supplier IONOS to ship what it describes as an open-source various to Microsoft 365 for European companies.
“As demand is arising, choices are being developed out there — one thing that we had not seen earlier than as much as one 12 months in the past,” stated Maisto from Forrester.
European infrastructure suppliers reminiscent of OVHcloud, IONOS, and Scaleway are additionally eager to emphasise their digital sovereignty credentials, touting European possession and operations as a substitute for US cloud suppliers.
But European cloud suppliers battle to rival hyperscalers’ companies, with trade-offs in areas reminiscent of performance and scalability. Nearly two thirds (65%) of respondents to the Accenture survey stated they will’t stay aggressive with out non-European know-how suppliers.
On the similar time, US cloud suppliers have launched their very own sovereign-cloud variants to reassure prospects with knowledge residency companies, in addition to choices for administration by European residents.
Microsoft expanded its Soveriegn Cloud plans this 12 months, for instance, introducing a Knowledge Guardian service that ensures solely Microsoft workers residing in European international locations can entry buyer knowledge. It launched a Sovereign Non-public Cloud choice, in addition to Microsoft 365 Native, basically a model of Microsoft’s cloud productiveness apps that may be put in regionally on a buyer’s personal servers. AWS, Google, and Oracle have additionally introduced plans to launch or develop sovereign cloud companies within the area.
These sovereign cloud companies provided by hyperscalers benefit from entry to acquainted applied sciences and a number of the scale of public cloud, albeit with some constraints.
Nonetheless, they sometimes price considerably greater than the usual public cloud choice: between 10% and 20% extra for Google Sovereign Cloud, for instance, and 15% to 30% for Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, based on Boston Consulting Group. And whereas these sovereign-cloud fashions might cut back the chance of knowledge being topic to entry or switch requests by international governments, they don’t remove it fully, and questions stay over how sovereign such companies are in observe.
Alongside these approaches, a 3rd mannequin has emerged that seeks to mix native management with entry to hyperscaler know-how. Right here, US cloud suppliers’ software program is delivered via infrastructure operated by native companions. In Germany, for example, Google is working with StackIT to ship its Workspace apps, whereas Microsoft affords Azure and Microsoft 365 companies in France by way of Bleu (a three way partnership between Orange and Capgemini), an instance of Microsoft’s Nationwide Companion Cloud technique.
Tips on how to make choices round digital sovereignty
So how ought to organizations navigate this advanced panorama? It’s greatest to start out by taking a threat administration strategy, stated Gartner’s Buest, and categorize workloads by inserting them on a spectrum when it comes to what’s most important.
For purposes the place a excessive stage of sovereignty is required, an area or regional supplier could also be preferable, he stated. On the different finish of the spectrum could be instruments that pose much less of a threat in a hyperscaler cloud — an workplace room-booking utility, for example.
“If it’s not accessible, nicely, it hurts, however it doesn’t have a really big influence in your group,” stated Buest. “It’s totally different in case your ecommerce web site is down, or different sorts of processes you’ll want to exist as a company.”
Supply: 2025 Gartner report on digital sovereignty technique
Gartner
It’s additionally essential to think about how simple it’s to maneuver away from a selected vendor if mandatory. That is the place open requirements and open supply may be useful, in addition to applied sciences reminiscent of containers that make it simpler to maneuver if mandatory. “Portability is one thing that turns into increasingly more essential,” stated Buest.
Adoption of cloud-native applied sciences can, generally-speaking, enhance workload portability.
Craig Tivendale, Volvo Related Options cloud provisioning supervisor, stated the agency has used AWS for round a decade to retailer and course of knowledge regionally in a number of areas the place it operates — together with Europe, the US, China, Japan, and South Korea — to satisfy knowledge residency necessities and cut back latency. He stated the corporate is glad with the service supplied by AWS and wouldn’t search to vary this relationship (or transfer to the European Sovereign Cloud service that AWS has begun rolling out) except new authorized necessities have been to emerge.
Ought to that want come up sooner or later, he stated, the corporate’s cloud methods are architected to help portability. “We may transfer loads of our workloads as they’re containerized,” he stated. “From that perspective, it shouldn’t be too tough.”
An even bigger problem would lie within the varied exterior companies the corporate depends upon, reminiscent of mapping platforms and telecoms suppliers, which might should be reconnected and examined in a brand new surroundings. “In the event you’re utilizing provider-specific companies, you’ll want to work out what the equal is elsewhere, after which undergo the entire improvement and testing cycle once more,” he stated.
Alongside these technical concerns, there are organizational challenges to handle too. For IT leaders who wish to change their cloud technique, it’s essential to get senior executives and CEOs on board.
“Sovereignty was — and nonetheless is — principally a subject relegated to compliance and technical managers,” stated Accenture’s Capo, “whereas this transition in direction of a brand new set of ecosystem companions is known as a board-level dialogue. Transferring this subject to the board and to the CEO is an crucial that we urge purchasers to proceed with.”
Senior leaders could also be extra keen to help a change in technique as soon as they’re conscious of each the dangers related to world cloud companies and, importantly, the choices that help digital sovereignty. “Give them options,” urged the Austrian Ministry’s CIO, Ollrom.
“They know the most typical instruments like Microsoft Groups; they don’t take into consideration options. In the event you give them a really clear and logical technique why Microsoft Groups or every other cloud service is perhaps an enterprise threat, I [have had the experience] that they by no means say no,” he stated.
“You must be open-minded. And it’s important to transport this open-mindedness to the following administration stage.”
Finally, it’s about shifting expectations, stated Zinnagl, the Ministry’s CISO. “They didn’t imagine earlier than that it’s attainable to make use of different instruments than Microsoft right here — we confirmed that it’s,” he stated. “There are loads of different actually cool enterprise instruments on the market: open supply or not open supply, however from an area or European vendor.”
