Digital Sovereignty: Why European Enterprises Must Act Now

In an increasingly digitalised world, the ability to exercise autonomous control over one's own data, technologies, and digital infrastructures becomes a critical success factor. That this topic is becoming ever more important for decision-makers is evident not only amongst our longstanding clients, but also at this year's Heise IT Summit "Digital Sovereignty – Foundation for Resilient IT".

The vast majority of technologies deployed in Germany originate from abroad: American enterprises provide 80-90% of deployed chips, 70% of utilised cloud capacities, and 70% of Large Language Models for Generative AI.

These dependencies represent not merely a theoretical risk, but a concrete threat to the operational capability of German enterprises. For instance, the American hyperscalers AWS and Microsoft have not denied that they would, if necessary, transfer European data to their governmental authorities pursuant to the US Cloud Act. A further dramatic example of political influence by tech giants: Microsoft's enforcement of email restrictions against the Chief Prosecutor at the European Court of Justice following Trump's sanctions against four judges. Particularly during periods of geopolitical tension, digital sovereignty thus becomes a strategic necessity.

What Does Digital Sovereignty Really Mean?

Digital sovereignty describes far more than mere technological independence. It concerns the ability to exercise autonomous control over digital technologies, data, and infrastructures whilst making independent decisions. It is not a call for complete autarky, but rather the foundation for self-determined action in the digital realm.

Digital sovereignty is a state wherein enterprises are not dependent upon individual digital actors, but can negotiate fair prices and determine themselves where their data is stored. Bernie Wagner, CEO of Stack IT, encapsulates this succinctly: "Digital sovereignty is the ability to walk away from the negotiating table."

To evaluate potential measures, one should approach digital sovereignty through three dimensions according to Gartner: Data Sovereignty, Operational Sovereignty, and Technological Sovereignty.

The trustworthiness of international partners plays a decisive role. German enterprises have high trust in partners from the EU, whilst trust in partners from third countries falls considerably lower. A shared understanding of values and unified legal framework create not only enhanced trust in secure operations and data security, but also ensure reliable implementation of regulatory requirements.

A comprehensive sovereignty strategy must consider the data, hardware, networks, and software protection measures that contribute to defining one's own sovereign IT landscape.

Concrete Measures for Enhanced Digital Sovereignty:

1. Conduct Risk Assessment
   • Identify critical dependencies
   • Analyse impacts of geopolitical risks
2. Diversify Suppliers
   • Build strategic partnerships with European providers
   • Focus on interoperable solutions
   • Deploy open-source solutions
3. Invest in Own Competencies
   • Build internal expertise in key technologies
   • Cooperations with European research institutions
4. Prioritise End-to-End Encryption
   • As cybersecurity experts emphasise, digital sovereignty challenges us to "navigate complex areas of technology, politics, and human rights. Through promoting unrestricted E2E, we can create a safer digital future"