European IT leaders’ trust in global cloud providers is waning. Geopolitical tensions are prompting as many as 61 per cent of CIOs in Western Europe to seek alternatives from local or regional providers, according to a Gartner survey. Furthermore, 53 per cent of respondents believe that geopolitics will limit their future use of hyperscalers. Digital sovereignty is becoming a powerful new driver of IT spending, joining trends such as AI and cyber security.
The growing need for digital sovereignty – defined as the ability to control data, IT architecture and applications without dependence on foreign entities – is becoming a reality. Gartner analyst Rene Buest points out that regulations, customer requirements or the status of critical infrastructure are making organisations unwilling or unable to place their critical systems with non-European providers. Gartner predicts that by 2030, more than 75 per cent of companies outside the US will have a digital sovereignty strategy, often based on ‘sovereign cloud’ models.
In response to these challenges, companies are considering two main paths. The first is ‘geopatriation’, the process of shifting workloads from cloud giants to local players. However, Gartner points out that this requires long-term investment and effort from these smaller providers. Open source is becoming the second pillar of the strategy; 55 per cent of IT leaders see open source technologies as a key element of the future cloud strategy. They offer flexibility and adaptability, although the downside is sometimes increased complexity and fragmentation of projects.
Paradoxically, organisations that have so far held back on a full migration to the cloud are now in the best strategic position. Gartner’s Buest notes that they can now consciously select cloud platforms for specific needs, avoiding the ‘all eggs in one basket’ trap. Organisations already deeply embedded in a single-provider ecosystem cannot afford to migrate overnight. The lesson is clear: the responsibility for digital autonomy lies with the CIOs themselves, and service providers will not deliver it for them.
