Enabling Digital Sovereignty in a Multi-Cloud Environment

Digital sovereignty has become a common topic in technology and regulatory circles today as companies try to gain control over their #data and applications amid rising concerns about #dataprivacy, cyber-attack risks, and varying laws across diverse geographies.

The growth of data and digital transformation

While organizations seek to?accelerate digital transformation by?moving their data and applications to?the #cloud, the concern grows around data on?hosting data servers of?a?few leading public cloud technology solution providers. The users may have limited control over the hosting location of?their data, and subsequently, impact their #datasovereignty. And #digitalsovereignty is?far away when there is?an?impact on?cloud-hosted data.

What is digital sovereignty?

In?digital sovereignty, individuals, organizations, or?nations take control of?their digital data, services, and infrastructure, decreasing reliance on?external entities or?foreign technology providers.?

Digital sovereignty includes making crucial decisions about digital policies that align with a?country’s?core values and interests. It?aims to?ensure the security of?sensitive data while empowering businesses, organizations, and individuals to?have increased autonomy over their digital assets and information.

Issues like the 2013 Snowden revelation of?mass eavesdropping by?the NSA and the 2015 Facebook?— Cambridge Analytica scandal on?misuse of?personal data show risks involved in?the failure to?govern digital spaces. All these necessitate governments, organizations, and individuals to?restore control over data with digital independence. It?also involves developing sovereign cloud solutions and empowering states to?regulate and control digital technology and services. In?simple terms?— where data gets stored, moved and who controls the data.

Data sovereignty depends on cloud sovereignty

In?cloud applications, data resides in?the cloud. Controlling this data in?the cloud to?achieve data sovereignty requires having control of?the cloud infrastructure (cloud sovereignty).?

However, this is?a?challenge as?data hosting often happens on?the infrastructure of?leading cloud providers like #GoogleCloud, #Azure, and #AWS?— beyond the control of?the data owners. While these hyper scalers have tried to?address the need for local digital sovereignty by?establishing local data centers, compliance programs, and contractual commitments, the complex landscape of?data sovereignty, #compliance, legal requirements, and customer expectations poses ongoing challenges. For example, today, the digital identities of?countless European citizens are widespread across various email applications, and data gets hosted outside the European Union.??

?92 percent of?the Western world’s?data is?stored in?the US.??— European Digital Sovereignty?— Syncing Values and Value.

Countries worldwide find themselves heavily reliant on?foreign companies for their digital future.

Unleash the power of localized cloud infrastructure

Incorporating digital sovereignty thinking into an organization's cloud or #multicloud strategy is critical to harness the maximum potential of their virtual environment. As part of this strategy, organizations should leverage the diverse strengths and capabilities of different cloud platforms and cloud service providers and manage them synergistically to achieve control over their data and cloud infrastructure and, thus, their digital future.

Enabling digital sovereignty: The emma multi-cloud management platform?

For achieving digital sovereignty in?a?multiple-cloud environment, an? organization’s?multi-cloud strategy must meticulously adhere to?global, local, regional, and industry-specific regulatory requirements, guaranteeing compliance wherever they host workloads.?

This compliance in?a?multiple cloud environment is?contingent upon the seamless orchestration of?resources, applications, and data across diverse cloud service providers. An?agnostic cloud management platform becomes the linchpin of?this strategy, enabling organizations to?capitalize on?the benefits of?a?multi-cloud approach while maintaining compliance, security, and efficiency at?every step of?their cloud journey.

The emma ? Cloud Management Platform platform enables businesses to?maintain digital sovereignty by?centralizing control, governance, and security measures across all cloud deployments. It?ensures that sensitive data and workloads are handled with utmost care and adhere meticulously to?global, local, regional, and industry-specific regulatory requirements. As?a?result, organizations can confidently extend their reach across geographies and industries, all while guaranteeing compliance wherever their workloads get hosted.

??. Watch the recording of our talk on "Empowering European Digital Sovereignty with Solutions from Luxembourg" from the recent ICT Spring Conference

??. Take a virtual tour of the emma platform