The European CIO’s Guide to Digital Sovereignty

Why it Matters Now and What You an Do About It

Digital sovereignty is the ability of your organization to control and protect its own data, infrastructure, and digital operations, without unwanted influence from foreign powers or tech monopolies.

For European firms, this critically touches on:

– The risk of U.S. surveillance under the CLOUD Act

– Board-level concerns about operational continuity during global conflict or sanctions

– Growing regulatory and client scrutiny regarding data residency and governance

Bottom line: Trust in digital infrastructure is no longer automatic—and relying on U.S. tech giants without a sovereignty strategy is becoming a liability.

The New Urgency of Digital Sovereignty

In today’s volatile geopolitical climate, digital sovereignty is no longer a theoretical concern—it’s a business-critical issue. From the war in Ukraine to rising U.S.–China tech tensions, European organizations are being forced to confront a hard truth: their operations, data, and resilience often depend on U.S.-based technology providers subject to foreign laws and shifting global alliances.

European CIOs, CTOs, and digital leaders now face a fundamental question:

Can your organization remain secure, competitive and operational in the face of rising digital risk?

Four Growing Risk Areas Facing European Enterprises

1. Data Seizure Risk

U.S. law allows American cloud providers to hand over data under the CLOUD Act.

2. Vendor Lock-In

Proprietary platforms like Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, SFDC and many others entrench you in expensive, hard-to-exit ecosystems.

3. Geopolitical Exposure

Conflicts, sanctions, and diplomatic tensions can suddenly cut off access to mission-critical services.

4. Loss of Control and Innovation - Today’s SaaS Dependency Is Tomorrow’s Achilles Heal

Over-reliance on monopolistic vendors limits your options and slows your tech agility.

What Leading Firms Are Doing

Forward-thinking organizations are acting now by:

– Re-Thinking their cloud infrastructure and U.S. dependencies

– Deploying sovereign cloud services like OVHcloud, IONOS, or Scaleway

– Adopting open alternatives like Nextcloud, Zimbra, LibreOffice

– Renegotiating contracts with portability and local control clauses

– Engaging digital sovereignty consultants to map risk and lead transitions

Your Roadmap to Digital Sovereignty

At PrivaCore, we guide companies through practical, cost-effective sovereignty planning. Our Digital Independence Assessment includes:

– A high level current-state analysis

– A custom Vendor Lock-In and CLOUD Act risk analysis

– Key findings presented in an executive-level report

– Prioritized recommendations with executive-level rationale, ROI and timelines

– An internal alignment strategy to secure funding and build a roadmap

End result: A secure, sovereign digital strategy aligned with your business goals.