Enterprises put money behind digital sovereignty plans

Four in 10 EMEA enterprises are allocating budget to digital sovereignty, creating new opportunities for partners

Digital sovereignty is turning into a significant commercial opportunity for the IT channel, with 40 per cent of surveyed EMEA enterprises now ranking it as a high or extremely high priority and allocating budget to address it.

Speaking at Canalys Forum EMEA in Barcelona, Omdia chief analyst Alastair Edwards said: “Our survey of enterprise customers shows that 40 per cent of EMEA customers put digital sovereignty as a high or extremely high priority within their business, and they have allocated budget towards sovereignty.”

Similarly, IDC notes that 73 per cent of Western European organisations say their interest in digital sovereignty has increased over just the past six months, driven by geopolitical uncertainty and regulatory shifts.

Edwards described the market as a multibillion-dollar opportunity for partners, as organisations reassess their cloud strategies, invest in private infrastructure and seek greater control over their data and applications.

New cloud ecosystem takes shape

Demand for sovereignty is helping reshape the cloud market. Edwards pointed to investment in government and regional datacentres, alongside enterprises repatriating workloads from public cloud environments and developing private AI infrastructure.

Not all of that infrastructure will be hosted on customers’ premises. Some organisations will turn to colocation facilities or emerging cloud providers, including neoclouds specialising in AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile, hyperscalers are developing sovereign cloud offerings, while regional cloud providers, telecoms companies and channel partners are expanding their own capabilities.

Cutting through sovereign cloud claims

In this environment, Edwards said customers were struggling to understand what different sovereign cloud offerings actually provide.

“What does the marketing of a hyperscale sovereign cloud provider actually mean?” he asked. “Does it allow them to comply with new legislation?”

Questions around data protection, operational control and regulatory compliance are becoming increasingly important as organisations evaluate cloud services and AI infrastructure.

Edwards argued that partners have a critical role in helping customers navigate these decisions.

Businesses want to strengthen resilience while continuing to adopt new technologies, particularly AI. However, moving workloads into new environments can introduce additional questions about control, security and exposure to external providers.

The opportunity for partners, said Edwards, is to help customers balance those requirements rather than treating resilience and innovation as competing priorities. That creates potential demand for consultancy, infrastructure design, cloud migration, integration and managed services.

Sovereignty opens new opportunities for partners

The changing market could also create openings for partners looking to develop their own cloud capabilities. Edwards pointed to the emergence of new providers alongside established hyperscalers, regional operators and telecoms companies. Some partners are already building cloud environments themselves, adding another option for customers seeking greater control over where their workloads operate.

However, the growing number of providers also makes choosing the right approach more difficult.

“This is an incredibly complex environment for customers to navigate through, and they need help,” said Edwards.

Customers need to understand what sovereignty means for their particular workloads, rather than assuming that every service marketed as sovereign delivers the same protections.