Worldwide geopolitical uncertainty, tense trade relationships and national security concerns not only heat the debate on the topic of digital sovereignty-they also grow the market for confident cloud services and boost the demand for companies for safe, local access to the latest AI tools.
With the public cloud, companies benefit from unprecedented advantages with regard to data access and data flow. However, in times of geopolitical uncertainty, sensitive data – which also include state mockery and in regulated industries – must be particularly protected.
SAP board spokesman Christian Klein recently stated in an interview with the Financial Times that these concerns have fueled fears in terms of the choice of cloud infrastructure. They also inspired the concept of “sovereign” data centers, which aims to remain information within the national borders.
Sovereign Clouds
So far, there were mainly national governments, authorities and a few companies in sensitive areas such as the defense industry and the supply industry that had requested sovereign clouds. Technology companies, among them the SAP, have complied with this requirement by providing highly safe, sovereign cloud services.
In the past few months, however, the discussion about digital sovereignty has taken on a broader basis. Hayete Gallot, President of Customer Experience on Google, recently stated: “Sovereignty has so far been more of a niche issue and for heavily regulated industries such as the defense industry and intelligence services. Against the background of current developments, all thoughts suddenly worry about it.”
The EU has proposed investments of EUR 20 billion for the establishment of five so -called “gigafactors”. They are intended to create the basis for digital sovereignty and support Europe to assert themselves better against the market-dominant hyperscals and large language models (Large Language Models, LLMS) of US providers. However, others like Christian Klein do not think it makes sense to replicate the physical infrastructure of hyperscalers and other technology providers.
The race for hardware for data centers is over
Christian Klein considers a loss of billions of state investments in huge new data centers in the EU to be wrong and argued that European companies already have control and sovereignty about their own data. “The hardware train has left,” he summed up. He and other SAP managers also point out that digital sovereignty contains more than just the physical infrastructure-the operational, technical and legal aspects of data sovereignty are just as important.
Above all, with the SAP SOEUGN Cloud, a model is available in which customer data can remain in the country and stored in compliance with local laws without having to replicate the existing physical infrastructure. The cloud services for this offer have been developed over the past 20 years and are already used by a number of companies with the highest demands on data security worldwide. Among other things, the services are provided by the SAP National Security Services (SAP NS2) organization for US companies.
Use of the SAP sovereign cloud with customers
The SAP SOVEUGN Cloud is already using over 170 customers around the world and plans to invest another 2 billion euros in the coverage of additional regions in the next ten years. Among other things, the SAP is currently talking to four Asian countries. In Germany, the organization provides secure sovereign cloud services via Delos Cloud and plans a similar offer for France, which Bleu is to be provided.
Instead of trying to catch up with the USA in a superior race, Europe must now promote the use of AI solutions in individual industries and certain areas of application.
In one Guest commentary in the Handelsblatt Recently advocated Christian Klein for a digital strategy for Europe that builds on the digital strengths of the region: “We need a new concept of sovereignty defined by Europe, which relies on control and self -determination instead of self -sufficiency.” He also warned that digital sovereignty is “not an end in itself” and called for a “profound change” of the business models of industries.
These models “have to be thought new, processes digitized and used in a targeted manner – for more innovation, for greater efficiency, for sustainability”, he continued.
Martin Merz, President of SAP SOEUGEN Cloud, shares this view: “The discussion about digital sovereignty in Europe has been managed for too long with too many keywords and too little substance,” he confirmed. “We have reached a point where Europe can no longer afford misguided discussions. What is important is the value creation. Real sovereignty means to enable people, industries and governments to be leading through innovations.”
“When it comes to highly sensitive data, SAP Soverägn Cloud comes into play,” continued Martin Merz. “The range of solutions was specially developed for the protection of particularly sensitive, safety -critical data. It enables the highest level of safety and operational independence without braking without braking innovations.”
Locally hosted AI
The fact that the focus is on the discussion about data sovereignty is also shown by the fact that many SAP customers now speak of sovereign AI or “locally hosted AI”, as SAP describes it. CTO Philipp Herzig recently pointed out that the SAP now offers various self-hosted AI models in a safer, local environment to set the course for it. “From the third quarter, we consistently provide the entire AI Foundation through European data centers. This means that companies are available to AI solutions that are fully managed and operated by the SAP,” he said.
This gives customers access to the latest local models such as Mistral Small and Mistral Medium, Alph Alpha Or the T-Free model used by the federal government. “Your data will be stored locally, are trustworthy, compliant and safe. You can be seamlessly integrated into the functions of SAP Business AI without impairing performance, governance or data protection,” said Philipp Herzig.
He reported that the Swiss Federal Railways have positioned themselves as one of the first awards as a pioneer and use local hosted AI solutions with Mistral AI to drive innovations in a trustworthy environment. At a conference of Nvidia in France, he recently announced that the SAP is part of a strategic partnership Mistral Ai and Capgemini wants to accelerate the introduction of AI across Europe.
“Together we shape the future of AI for companies: safe, locally and intelligent,” said Philipp Herzig.
