Europe faces a sovereignty test

European organizations must balance adopting modern cloud technology with keeping control of their data. Geopolitical instability, tightening regulation and rapid AI adoption have made sovereignty a board-level risk discussion.

The sovereignty washing problem

The European Commission's forthcoming Cloud and AI Development Act will give Europe a shared definition of what sovereign actually means. Without it, the market is filled with offerings claiming sovereignty without delivering it.

Open source is not the answer

Some organizations treat open source as a sovereignty solution, but it is a licensing model, not an operating model. It does not settle questions about infrastructure, jurisdiction, reliability or access.

“It's not a route out of dependency, it's a different dependency on project sponsors and code maintainers.”

Scale matters more than starting from scratch

European cloud service providers are partnering with established technology providers to deliver sovereign capability without rebuilding the entire technology stack. Scale, not skills or innovation, is the biggest obstacle to a stronger European cloud market.

Italy shows the partnership model works

IPZS, owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, is using partnership to build a modern Digital Application Platform for the Italian EUDI wallet, a foundational EU digital identity initiative.

Partnership addresses all sovereignty dimensions

Providers like evoila and Uniserver operate beyond Europe's borders, combining local operational and jurisdictional control with proven technology. Sovereignty spans jurisdictional, technological, operational and supply chain dimensions.

IONOS and VMware model in practice

IONOS offers customers a dedicated VMware-based private cloud operated within the EU under EU jurisdiction. Broadcom supplies only the VMware software layer while IONOS runs infrastructure and holds the customer relationship.

“Trust, in this model, follows the architecture rather than the brand.”

CADA must recognize partnership models

As the European Parliament and European Council work on the Cloud and AI Development Act, they should recognize and reward partnership models already delivering sovereign capability across Europe today.