The sovereign cloud is a cloud infrastructure tailor-made to comply with the legal, operational, and security requirements of specific national or regional jurisdictions. It ensures that data, workloads, and infrastructure are managed under local control, inside the borders of a specific country or economic area. Unlike global public cloud models, which may spread data across multiple countries, sovereign clouds are structured to comply with local laws, cultural expectations, and strategic autonomy requirements.
The term “sovereign cloud” began gaining traction in the late 2010s, sparked by global concerns over data jurisdiction and surveillance. The 2013 Edward Snowden revelations exposed broad intelligence collection programs, while legal cases, such as the US CLOUD Act (United States Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) and Microsoft’s refusal to hand over data stored in Ireland, highlighted inherent conflicts between national data laws. These events underscored the need for a new architectural model that combines cloud innovation with national governance.
European governments and large organizations became early adopters of sovereign cloud strategies, not simply for localized hosting, but to build environments where data is processed, controlled, and audited within defined jurisdictions.
The need for sovereign cloud has become a strategic imperative in today’s digital-first world. With sensitive services such as public healthcare, digital identities, finance, and e-government platforms moving to the cloud, it is no longer enough to prioritize scalability and cost-efficiency alone. Organizations must now ensure full control over their data, infrastructure, and legal accountability.
Sovereign cloud addresses these critical concerns by offering a cloud environment where data remains under national jurisdiction, operated by trusted in-country providers. This is especially vital as global regulations tighten and the risk of foreign surveillance and extraterritorial data access continues to rise.
The importance of sovereign cloud lies in its ability to help organizations:
These capabilities are not incidental; they are designed into the architecture of sovereign clouds. Providers with deep regional roots and experience in regulated sectors, such as those offering European-built sovereign cloud frameworks, are especially well-equipped to deliver this trust-centric model. T-Systems, for example, provides sovereign cloud services that are operated within Europe, aligned with strict national laws, and built for industries where compliance and control are non-negotiable.
As the demand for data protection, transparency, and digital autonomy grows, sovereign cloud becomes not just a solution, but a foundation for sustainable digital transformation.
This makes it especially relevant in regions such as Europe, where data protection and digital sovereignty are deeply tied to public policy, economic strategy, and societal trust.
As Europe accelerates toward a digital future, the demand for cloud services that align with European laws, values, and strategic interests has never been more pressing. The digital economy now underpins essential public and private sector functions, from healthcare systems and financial services to critical infrastructure and public administration. In this context, data is more than a business asset, it’s a matter of public trust, national security, and economic resilience.
While global cloud adoption continues to rise, many European organizations face a dilemma: how to benefit from the flexibility and scalability of the cloud without losing control over their data, infrastructure, or compliance posture. This is precisely where sovereign cloud enters the picture, not as an alternative, but as the necessary evolution of responsible cloud computing.
Enabling compliance with European regulations
One of the foremost drivers of sovereign cloud adoption is regulatory compliance. As mentioned in the previous section, frameworks such as GDPR, BSI standards, and country-specific mandates such as SGB place clear and often stringent requirements on how and where data is stored, processed, and governed. Sovereign cloud architectures are designed to:
This is critical not just for compliance audits, but also for maintaining legal defensibility in the face of cross-border investigations or extraterritorial laws.
Safeguarding against foreign access and dependencies
Recent geopolitical events and legal disputes, such as concerns over foreign surveillance laws or unilateral service disruptions, have made one thing clear: European digital sovereignty is no longer optional. Sovereign cloud ensures that:
This degree of control is especially essential for sectors dealing with sensitive information.
Empowering European digital autonomy and innovation
True sovereignty is not about isolation, it’s about controlled participation in the global digital economy. Sovereign clouds allow European organizations to innovate with confidence, knowing they are:
By adopting sovereign cloud models, Europe can create a trusted digital backbone, one that enables competitiveness, protects citizens, and ensures that innovation happens on European terms.
A prime example of a sovereign cloud is built, hosted, and governed entirely within a specific country or region, following its legal, operational, and security standards. For instance, a sovereign cloud used in a national healthcare system would store patient data only in domestic data centers, with encryption keys managed locally and access restricted to authorized national entities. These setups ensure that no foreign law can interfere with how the data is handled, even if a global hyperscaler is involved through a local partner. But sovereign cloud is more than just where the data lives, it is a strategic framework that integrates legal policy, technical design, and operational control into a single, compliant, and future-ready model.
Here’s what defines this approach:
Each of these elements is explored in detail in the next section.
As European enterprises and governments navigate increasing regulatory complexity and cyber security risks, examples such as these show how the sovereign cloud isn’t just a technology choice, it’s a strategic enabler of digital sovereignty. Trusted providers in Europe are already leading this shift by delivering cloud services that align with national interests and industry-specific requirements.
A sovereign cloud keeps all data, operational, backup, and metadata within the national or regional boundaries defined by law. This applies not just to user data, but also system logs, telemetry, and configuration data that often go unnoticed. By ensuring that everything stays in-country, organizations can avoid unintended data transfers and maintain full alignment with local laws. This is especially critical in sectors such as public services, healthcare, and finance, where even minor jurisdictional oversights can trigger compliance risks.
Regulatory compliance by design
A sovereign cloud doesn't treat compliance as an add-on. Instead, it is built into the architecture. From GDPR and BSI standards to SGB-specific health regulations, these requirements are addressed through embedded policies, preconfigured templates, automated monitoring, and audit-ready environments. This reduces the compliance burden for organizations and accelerates the onboarding of regulated workloads.
Operational autonomy, infrastructure control, and vendor transparency
A cornerstone of digital sovereignty is ensuring full operational and infrastructure autonomy. This means local teams, not foreign entities, manage the cloud infrastructure, from applying patches to handling incidents. Organizations retain control over key infrastructure decisions, such as data center locations, hardware ownership, and access rights. Complementing this is vendor transparency: clear visibility into who manages the infrastructure, where data resides, and who can access it. Robust contractual provisions like exit strategies, data portability, and backup mechanisms further empower organizations to maintain control and adapt their cloud strategy without vendor lock-in.
Security aligned with national standards
Cyber threats don’t respect borders, but sovereign clouds ensure that defenses are aligned with local threat models. Encryption is managed locally, with options such as bring-your-own-key (BYOK) and hold-your-own-key (HYOK), and incident response teams operate within the same legal framework as the customer. This results in faster response times and greater transparency, while also ensuring no external influence can compromise sensitive data.
Flexible and controlled connectivity
Sovereign clouds offer different levels of network exposure based on use case. Some are connected to the Internet with strict controls, while others operate in isolated or air-gapped environments for maximum protection. This flexibility enables organizations to match their security posture to their specific risk profiles, whether they’re running citizen-facing services or sensitive internal systems.
Sovereign cloud adoption is rising as organizations recognize the need for digital independence, local control, and long-term trust. While the advantages are substantial, ranging from regulatory alignment to infrastructure autonomy, implementing a sovereign cloud also comes with its own set of operational and legal complexities. Below, we explore both the benefits and the challenges to help enterprises make informed decisions.
Sovereign cloud platforms are built to comply with local and regional regulations such as GDPR, Germany’s BSI IT-Grundschutz, and healthcare-specific mandates such as SGB. Compliance is embedded into the cloud’s architecture, reducing the risk of non-compliance and speeding up audit readiness.
Example: A European bank uses the sovereign cloud to host customer financial data, ensuring full alignment with EU regulatory requirements and reducing exposure to fines or legal scrutiny.
Unlike global public cloud models, sovereign clouds ensure that sensitive data is hosted, processed, and governed within national borders, beyond the reach of foreign surveillance laws or extraterritorial demands such as the US CLOUD Act.
Example: A digital identity platform secures biometric and verification data in-country, ensuring that only local courts have access rights, protecting citizen trust and legal integrity.
Enterprises can define their own access policies, manage encryption keys, and maintain full control over infrastructure and administrative operations, without relying on foreign-managed cloud layers.
Example: A research agency hosts mission-critical applications in a sovereign environment, managing hardware and encryption locally to eliminate any external dependency.
Data transparency and clear legal boundaries build trust, a crucial factor in healthcare, government services, and financial platforms.
Example: A local government launches a digital portal where users know their personal information stays within national borders. This transparency improves engagement and adoption.
Sovereign cloud enables organizations to adopt next-gen technologies such as AI and analytics without compromising on data ethics, privacy, or governance.
Example: A biotech firm runs genomic algorithms in a sovereign environment, ensuring compliance with privacy norms while accelerating medical innovation.
While the benefits are compelling, realizing sovereignty in the cloud is a nuanced process. It involves more than just shifting infrastructure; it requires adapting to legal, technical, and operational realities. Below are the five key challenges enterprises often face:
1. Interpreting complex, evolving regulations
Sovereign compliance isn’t static. From GDPR to industry-specific rules, regulations evolve constantly. Organizations must adapt their cloud strategies to remain compliant across borders and sectors.
2. Tailoring protection to workload risk
Different types of information call for varying degrees of sovereignty. Companies must assess business risk, classify workloads, and apply the right level of protection, avoiding both under- and over-engineering.
3. Designing disaster recovery within borders
Sovereign environments require that all backups and recovery systems remain within the same jurisdiction, which can raise infrastructure costs or limit architectural options, especially in regions with fewer certified data centers.
4. Balancing functionality with sovereignty
Advanced cloud features such as real-time AI, large-scale analytics, or global orchestration are harder to replicate in a fully sovereign model. Organizations need to find a balance between meeting their performance requirements and fulfilling their legal obligations.
5. Proving compliance through transparent auditing
Certifications alone may not prove sovereignty. Enterprises need jurisdiction-specific audits, access logs, and assurance that data, including metadata, never crosses borders.
Implementing a sovereign cloud is not just a technical deployment, it is a strategic commitment. For organizations to fully benefit from sovereignty while avoiding missteps, careful consideration must be given to legal jurisdiction, operational structure, and long-term cloud strategy. Below are five critical factors to evaluate before moving forward.
One of the first steps is understanding the legal and regulatory environment that applies to your organization. Different countries and industries operate under varied mandates, from Europe’s GDPR to healthcare-specific frameworks such as SGB in Germany or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S. Sovereign cloud adoption should align with these laws at the outset, ensuring that data handling, access, and storage practices fully comply with national and sectoral regulations.
The next factor is evaluating the cloud provider’s legal and operational setup. True sovereignty requires that the provider has an in-country legal presence and operates under local jurisdiction. It is also essential to verify whether the people involved in managing and supporting the cloud, including administrators and security teams, are residents or citizens who meet national security clearance requirements. This limits exposure to external legal interference or cross-border obligations.
Data center location is another foundational element. Sovereign cloud environments must store and process data exclusively within national or regional borders. This includes primary hosting as well as disaster recovery infrastructure. Organizations should assess whether the provider has access to certified, compliant facilities that can deliver on performance expectations while remaining within legal boundaries.
Encryption and key management protocols are equally important. To maintain complete control over sensitive data, organizations should ensure that they can manage their own encryption keys through BYOK or HYOK models. A provider’s ability to offer key isolation, without access even during maintenance or emergencies, is a defining capability of a sovereign solution.
Finally, organizations must think about the long term and build for flexibility. Exit strategies and interoperability should be part of the implementation roadmap from day one. Sovereign cloud environments must support open standards, allow for smooth workload migration, and remain compatible with hybrid or multi-cloud models. This ensures adaptability as legal requirements evolve or business needs change.
Sovereign cloud models support different layers of sovereignty based on how much control and legal protection an organization requires. This structure enables businesses to adapt their cloud setup according to national rules and risk levels without overcomplicating their IT architecture.
Data sovereignty
This ensures that all data, including metadata and logs, remains within the legal jurisdiction of a specific country or region. It is the foundation of sovereign cloud strategy and is especially relevant for critical and regulated industries. For more on this, see the earlier section on key aspects of sovereign cloud or you can access this interesting e-Book on “How to achieve digital sovereignty”.
Operational sovereignty
While data may be stored locally, full operational sovereignty gives organizations control over how their cloud is managed. This includes managing access rights, software updates, and security configurations without relying on external or foreign-controlled teams. It builds on the principles of data sovereignty and extends control to the cloud's day-to-day functionality.
Technology sovereignty
Technology sovereignty focuses on independence from foreign-controlled or proprietary digital infrastructure. It enables organizations to use open-source, locally governed, or EU-compliant platforms, ensuring that application deployment, system configuration, and innovation choices remain under regional or organizational control. This is critical for avoiding vendor lock-ins and ensuring long-term flexibility, transparency, and compliance.
Together, these three types of sovereignty create a framework that enables organizations to protect sensitive data, maintain regulatory compliance, and retain operational independence within the cloud.
Discover tailored sovereign cloud solutions from T-Systems, focusing on the three essential levels of sovereignty.
Encryption and data sovereignty work together to provide unmatched control in sovereign cloud environments. While we covered the concept of data sovereignty in an earlier section, here we look at how it pairs with encryption to protect sensitive digital assets.
In sovereign clouds, encryption keys are not just stored locally; they are controlled by the organization itself. Options such as BYOK and HYOK empower businesses to fully control who can access their data and when. This setup ensures that even cloud providers cannot decrypt or view sensitive information.
Many sovereign cloud solutions also incorporate zero-trust security models. These require every access request to be verified, regardless of origin. When combined with encryption policies managed under local jurisdiction, it creates a strong security foundation that protects against both internal misuse and external threats.
This approach is not only about security; it supports legal compliance by design. Organizations can meet data protection standards with confidence, knowing that their encryption strategy aligns with the rules of their jurisdiction.
What is an example of data sovereignty?
Imagine a healthcare provider hosting patient data in a sovereign cloud located entirely within national borders. All information, from files to metadata, is stored and processed locally, with encryption keys held by the organization itself. This setup ensures full jurisdictional control, preventing external access and aligning with the country's data protection requirements.
As explored earlier, the sovereign cloud offers critical capabilities for data control, legal compliance, and operational security. But its relevance is expanding far beyond these basics. It’s now shaping how businesses build resilient, policy-aligned, and future-proof IT environments.
Why the sovereign cloud is more than compliance
With rising data regulations and security threats, organizations initially turned to the sovereign cloud for risk mitigation. But today, it’s becoming a driver of long-term digital strategy, supporting business continuity, supply chain integrity, and secure innovation across sectors.
What is the role of the hybrid cloud in sovereignty?
The future of the cloud isn't limited to either public or private infrastructure. Hybrid sovereign models are gaining traction, where critical workloads are hosted under national governance while less sensitive services connect to approved hyperscaler platforms. This allows organizations to balance innovation with compliance.
How government policies are shaping cloud adoption
European digital sovereignty policies are increasingly influencing enterprise IT strategies. Organizations are expected to align their architecture with local legal frameworks, cyber security standards, and public cloud usage regulations, making sovereignty a core business requirement.
Why choosing the right sovereign cloud provider matters
To fully benefit from sovereignty in the long term, organizations need partners who deliver on all fronts: legal, technical, and operational. Selecting a provider with in-region presence, regulatory expertise, and trusted infrastructure is essential for building secure, compliant, and future-ready cloud ecosystems.
As covered in the previous section, the sovereign cloud is a forward-looking model that supports digital resilience and policy alignment. But to realize its full value, choosing the right provider is key. It’s no longer just about infrastructure or tools; it’s about end-to-end accountability, jurisdictional trust, and the ability to adapt to complex regulatory needs.
In-country presence and legal accountability
A qualified sovereign cloud provider must operate under the same legal system as the customer. This includes a locally registered legal entity, staffed operations teams, and in-country data centers. Without this, even domestic infrastructure may fall under foreign law due to the provider’s corporate structure. Local legal accountability ensures the provider remains fully compliant with national data laws.
Transparent data management and encryption protocols
Location alone isn’t enough. Providers should enable customers to control every aspect of data life cycle management: from where data resides to who can access it. This includes:
Such controls reinforce data sovereignty and help organizations meet compliance and cyber security requirements.
Localized support and disaster recovery
True sovereignty also demands operational independence. Providers should offer:
These elements ensure continuity without external dependencies, even in critical or regulated industries.
Verified compliance and transparent certifications
A sovereign provider must demonstrate its credentials clearly. This includes:
Such transparency helps reduce audit risk for customers and reinforces trust.
Strategic focus on regulated industries
Finally, a provider’s experience matters. Organizations in sectors such as public services, healthcare, or financial services should seek partners with a strong track record in these fields. Proven ability to implement sovereign controls aligned with domain-specific rules, such as SGB for German healthcare, can significantly ease compliance and operational integration.
Choosing a sovereign cloud provider requires a healthy balance of local presence, technical maturity, legal transparency, and sectoral knowledge to support long-term, strategic cloud adoption.
As organizations migrate sensitive workloads to the cloud, including sovereign environments, cloud governance becomes essential to maintain control, compliance, and accountability.
Governance provides a structured framework that defines who can access what, how data is managed, and how policies are enforced across cloud platforms. Without the right governance, even sovereign cloud deployments risk falling short of regulatory expectations or becoming operationally fragmented.
Cloud governance ensures that:
In short, cloud governance turns cloud adoption into sustainable digital sovereignty. It is the operational backbone that keeps sovereignty goals aligned with business objectives.
The sovereign cloud is not universally applicable to all situations. Its relevance grows stronger where compliance, control, and confidentiality are mission critical. Different industries and regions adopt the sovereign cloud for different reasons, ranging from regulatory mandates to national security. Below are the most prominent use cases.
Healthcare: Safeguarding patient privacy and enabling digital care
Healthcare institutions handle some of the most sensitive data, often regulated by national health laws and GDPR in Europe. Sovereign cloud ensures that all patient data, including diagnostic records and metadata, stays within the legal boundaries of the country. This model supports digitalization of healthcare systems, AI-driven diagnostics, and secure patient portals while maintaining full compliance.
Example: Germany’s University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) deployed a sovereign cloud model with T-Systems and Google Cloud to modernize diagnostics while ensuring patient data never leaves German jurisdiction.
Read more about the sovereign cloud healthcare use case
Insurance and public services: Secure digital identity and citizen services
Organizations that serve citizens, such as insurers or government agencies, must manage identity, consent, and service access securely. Sovereign cloud enables in-country hosting of sensitive data and supports legally compliant digital platforms at scale. This model is key for e-prescriptions, digital records, and national ID systems.
Example: BARMER, one of Germany’s largest health insurers, built a digital identity solution on T-Systems’ Open Sovereign Cloud. The platform now supports over 8.7 million users, ensuring data privacy and legal compliance with German health regulations.
Read more about the sovereign cloud insurance use case
Public sector and defense: Ensuring national control and legal clarity
Governments and defense departments require full ownership of data and IT infrastructure. Sovereign clouds offer secure, air-gapped systems and operational controls that prevent foreign access, supporting services such as e-governance, public databases, and critical infrastructure command centers, all within national legal frameworks.
Financial services: Meeting regulatory expectations in banking and beyond
Financial institutions must comply with strict rules around transaction monitoring, data retention, and customer confidentiality. Sovereign cloud provides a way to process and store financial data locally, comply with audit requirements, and maintain operational autonomy and financial sovereignty in a regulated environment.
Critical infrastructure and industrial operations: Reliable, secure, and local
Energy providers, manufacturing firms, and utility companies often need real-time data processing and high availability. Sovereign cloud offers localized infrastructure for hosting telemetry data, running industrial AI models, and ensuring business continuity, even during geopolitical disruptions.
European context: Empowering cloud sovereignty
Across Europe, sovereign cloud is emerging as a policy-aligned alternative to global public cloud models. Countries are prioritizing digital independence by choosing cloud solutions that meet EU standards for data protection, transparency, and trust. T-Systems plays a key role here by delivering co-developed and fully operated sovereign cloud services in line with European regulations.
Whether it's digitalizing healthcare, modernizing citizen services, or securing financial data, the sovereign cloud adapts to regional and sectoral contexts. Organizations such as UKSH and BARMER are leading examples of how the sovereign cloud can turn complex compliance needs into scalable, secure, and future-ready digital platforms.
T-Systems delivers one of the most comprehensive sovereign cloud portfolios in the European market, uniquely blending independence, compliance, and innovation. With over 14 years of sovereign experience and more than two decades in managed cloud services, T-Systems assists organizations in navigating regulatory complexity while embracing digital transformation with confidence.
Open Sovereign Cloud: Fully independent infrastructure for maximum control
Designed in alignment with European values and data protection regulations, the Open Sovereign Cloud (OSC) is a vendor-neutral, fully sovereign environment operated entirely within German and EU legal jurisdictions. It empowers organizations that require:
This offering is ideal for sectors such as healthcare, public services, and regulated manufacturing, where national oversight, compliance audits, and ethical data handling are non-negotiable.
Sovereign Controls: Co-developed solution with Google Cloud
For organizations that want to leverage hyperscaler scalability without compromising on sovereignty, T-Systems provides Sovereign Controls, co-developed with Google Cloud. This hybrid approach enables:
All data, metadata, and encryption keys remain in German data centers, governed by EU legal frameworks, ensuring protection against extraterritorial influence.
Explore more about T-Systems Sovereign Cloud Powered by Google Cloud
Private cloud with built-in sovereignty: T-Systems Future Cloud Infrastructure
For organizations that operate legacy systems or maintain hybrid IT landscapes, T-Systems offers a strategic path to sovereignty through its private cloud platform - Future Cloud Infrastructure (FCI). It combines the benefits of a dedicated infrastructure with the flexibility to embed sovereignty features based on business, legal, or sector-specific requirements.
With FCI, sovereignty isn’t an afterthought, it’s engineered into the cloud environment from day one. T-Systems enables customers to deploy:
This model is especially valuable for organizations in transition phases, whether moving from on-premise to cloud or modernizing mission-critical applications, while maintaining full visibility and legal alignment.
T-Systems’ private cloud offerings through FCI enable enterprises to move towards future-ready, sovereign-by-design environments at their own pace, without compromising on control or compliance.
Sovereignty consulting: Strategic alignment for every workload
T-Systems provides sovereignty readiness assessments and consulting services that help customers to:
This ensures organizations don’t just adopt cloud solutions but opt for the right sovereignty strategy for their workloads, minimizing risks while maximizing operational agility.
In a world where trust, control, and compliance are non-negotiable, adopting a sovereign cloud is not just a technical shift, it’s a strategic move towards future-ready digital resilience.
Whether you're operating in healthcare, public services, finance, or any other regulated industry, ensuring that your data remains protected, compliant, and under your control is crucial. Sovereign cloud infrastructure provides the foundation to make that happen.
Why now?
Backed by decades of cloud expertise and a deep commitment to European values, T-Systems enables you to define your sovereignty roadmap, from assessment to full-stack implementation.
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The future of your cloud is sovereign. Managing sensitive data in today’s world requires the best sovereign cloud. Scalability, functionality, and sovereignty: choose the levels based on your needs. Explore our video to learn more about leading Sovereign Cloud solutions for Europe.
A: Not necessarily. While private clouds are dedicated infrastructures operated exclusively for one organization, they do not automatically qualify as sovereign. A sovereign cloud requires compliance with legal, regulatory, and jurisdictional frameworks, especially regarding data residency, access control, operational sovereignty, and encryption management.
A private cloud can be considered sovereign only if it ensures:
In short, sovereignty adds a layer of legal and strategic compliance on top of technical isolation.
A: Yes, but with caveats. Global hyperscalers can offer sovereign capabilities only when working with trusted local partners who act as control layers for legal compliance and operational autonomy. These partnerships typically include:
In such models, the cloud infrastructure remains scalable and technically advanced, while control, compliance, and accountability stay within the jurisdiction. This hybrid approach brings the best of both worlds: innovation and independence.
A: T-Systems brings a unique combination of trust, experience, and European-rooted expertise:
Unlike single-purpose providers, T-Systems functions as a complete IT services partner, integrating cloud sovereignty into wider digital transformation strategies, while ensuring legal defensibility, operational autonomy, and security by design.
A: One notable example of a sovereign cloud is the OSC offered in Germany by T-Systems. It is built on open standards and operated entirely within German jurisdiction, ensuring compliance with local regulations such as the GDPR and BSI standards. The infrastructure, data processing, and encryption key management all occur within national borders, under the control of trusted European entities. This model enables organizations in sensitive sectors such as healthcare, finance, and public administration to adopt cloud technologies while maintaining full legal and operational sovereignty over their data.
A: Cloud models differ in more than just technical setup; they vary in governance, control, compliance, and strategic impact. Understanding these differences is key to making informed decisions in regulated or data-sensitive industries.
Public cloud
A public cloud refers to a shared infrastructure that is managed by third-party service providers. It offers high scalability, on-demand services, and cost efficiency by pooling resources across multiple customers. Public clouds typically span multiple global regions and may not guarantee where data is stored or processed.
Why do we need the public cloud?
Public cloud is essential for organizations that prioritize speed, scale, and flexibility. It’s well-suited for running dynamic workloads, testing environments, and global applications without the overhead of managing infrastructure.
Private cloud
A private cloud is a dedicated environment used exclusively by one organization. It offers strong control over infrastructure, higher security customization, and predictable performance. Unlike public cloud, it can be hosted on-premises or by a provider and gives organizations complete autonomy over setup and governance.
Why do we need the private cloud?
The private cloud is valuable when organizations handle sensitive data, require strict access controls, or need to meet specific internal governance policies. It allows customization without sharing infrastructure, making it ideal for legacy systems, finance, healthcare, and critical operations.
Sovereign cloud
The sovereign cloud extends beyond technical control; it embeds legal and jurisdictional protections into the cloud infrastructure. It ensures that data, workloads, encryption keys, and operational control remain within national or regional borders and under the full authority of local laws. This model supports compliance with standards such as GDPR, BSI, or SGB, and resists extraterritorial laws such as the US CLOUD Act.
Why do we need the sovereign cloud?
Sovereign cloud is essential for public institutions and industries where data control, national security, and legal sovereignty are non-negotiable. It supports long-term compliance, digital trust, and policy-driven innovation in sectors such as healthcare, public administration, and regulated infrastructure.
A: The main goal of cloud migration is to improve agility, reduce infrastructure costs, and modernize IT systems by moving workloads and data to the cloud. It helps businesses scale, innovate faster, and support remote operations efficiently.
A: Three examples of public cloud platforms are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and T-Systems' Open Telekom Cloud (OTC), a European public cloud offering that combines scalability with data protection under strict GDPR compliance.
A: A typical use case is a secure off-site storage for backup and disaster recovery. Cloud storage enables organizations to protect data, ensure availability, and support remote collaboration across teams.
A: Key applications of cloud computing include:
A: Cloud enables organizations to deliver digital services at scale, access modern technologies such as AI, and reduce the burden of managing physical infrastructure. With options such as OTC, FCI, OSC, and more, T-Systems helps European businesses achieve these goals securely and in a compliant manner.
