EU Digital Sovereignty Must be Based on Choice and Scale if it is to Succeed

Dominic Laurie, Corporate Communications Senior Director

As a former journalist, I know most news stories fall away quickly from the public line of sight. A good thing if you are on the wrong end of one. “Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping paper” is a saying you used to hear in Britain (before the rise of smartphones at least!). In contrast to that is Digital Sovereignty, which is standing the course of time, at least in Europe.

Beyond the headlines, Digital Sovereignty in Europe is becoming an vital business imperative. In this article, I will discuss:

• The urgency of Digital Sovereignty in Europe: Why reliance on non-EU cloud infrastructure has become a geopolitical and business crisis for the continent.
• The two keys to a successful sovereign solution: That effective digital autonomy must be based on genuine choice for customers and the scale to rival global hyperscalers.
• The path forward: How collaboration among European companies and the development of open source standards can build an interconnected, sovereign ecosystem.

EU Digital Sovereignty: Why the emotional response is driving real change

So why does Digital Sovereignty have staying power in the EU? First of all because it resonates. With a sense that Europe has lost something – an edge it used to have, skills and capacities that no longer exist. In conversations about this topic in Brussels and elsewhere, I hear the names of European tech firms listed out like a monument to the fallen, followed by the fact that three US firms provide 70% of Europe’s cloud-computing infrastructure. This has been known for a while. But recent shifts in the geopolitical weather have meant the consequences of these facts are now suddenly real, alive, urgent – maybe even painful, even embarrassing?

There is indeed an emotional response to this story, across a whole continent. And any communications coach will tell you that an emotional response is the only one that will get your audience to truly take notice and take action. And they have. Some of our customers have recently asked to move across to a sovereign solution, which we were able to do for them with little fuss. They’re acting not least because campaigning organisations such as EuroStack – which we were recently delighted to join – have ensured that politicians and governments can no longer ignore this issue. And they aren’t.

The Franco-German summit in November features a full day on Tech Sovereignty. The EU Commission and European parliament are also engaged – you only need to look at the legislative pipeline (and LinkedIn) to grasp that. They believe clearly that ultimately voters care about this issue. It is going mainstream. Customers consistently ask us about this, in a way we haven’t seen since the first rise of AI.

Given how Digital Sovereignty has entered the wider consciousness, it’s even more important now that companies like us articulate our point of view, and what we want to do about this situation. Two words sum up SUSE’s Digital Sovereignty position for me – choice and scale.

Digital Sovereignty based on customer choice

At a conference this summer, I listened to Sven Thomsen from the German state of Schleswig Holstein (probably the only person to rival Cristina Caffara to Digital Sovereignty Rockstar status – admittedly it’s a small list). He described how they are putting together an open source based stack involving a suite of European partners for their public sector employees. They take a purist view of sovereignty. His vision was impressive. This commitment takes a level of expertise, time, money, patience and mandate few organizations have. At the other end of the spectrum, you find customers who don’t want to let go of the ease of using a hyperscaler but would like more control and a presence in their jurisdiction.

As my colleague, SUSE’s Chief Technology and Product Officer Thomas di Giacomo says, how each business actually does this stuff is up to them. You can’t force a definition of sovereignty on anyone. They want their choice of where they stand along a risk-based gradient. Variables can be geography, exposure regulations, size of org, industry sector, how sensitive the data is, and other characteristics. We have to meet customers and partners where they are.

Organizations also expect a choice of partner. There are IT buyers – many of them – who want a sovereign alternative to a large global player. Maybe for ideological reasons, but often just so they don’t have to put all their eggs in one basket. That’s understandable in today’s world. But not everyone can be the CIO of Schleswig Holstein. So what can we do for the rest of the market? How can we make it easier for them?

The answer lies within my second key word – scale.

Scaling the European sovereign ecosystem

Too often, public investments into Digital Sovereignty have been predicated on the hope that acorns will grow into oak trees. That can happen, but when it does (rarely), it takes time. And you can’t bank on it. It sounds obvious, but the only way we are going to connect large numbers of people to a sovereign ecosystem is if we create a platform where customers and vendors can be connected to each other at scale. To make that happen, we need to involve the European companies who already have significant experience of operating at scale.

At the moment there are too many silos. Too many user interfaces that aren’t interoperable, and not enough standardization. Buyers who want a fuller fat version of sovereignty are faced with the task of manually curating their platform. A few like Sven Thomsen can do that. Most won’t – even if they want to. We have to build the marketplaces and ecosystems that people will actively want to use. Customers have stayed with hyperscalers for good reason. They are easy to use, brimming with functionality, and usable at scale. Let’s take those principles here in Europe too.

Moving the needle for Digital Sovereignty in EuropeThe SUSE approach to Digital Sovereignty in Europe is centered on:

• Choice: Meeting customers where they are along a risk-based gradient (geography, data sensitivity, regulation).
• Scale: Building interoperable platforms and ecosystems to break down silos.

We are already building connections with scale operators in Europe in the open source infrastructure software space. If that is you, get in touch. Let’s build standards and platforms that customers will want to connect to in their thousands. It’s the only way we will move the needle – and give this continent the choice it is clearly asking the industry to provide.

To learn more about how SUSE Sovereign Premium Support can help your organization achieve digital independence, explore these resources:

• SUSE’s approach to Digital Sovereignty.
• SUSE Sovereign Premium Support
• Download the official Datasheet
• Read the Customer FAQ