The recent Google Digital Sovereignty Summit in Munich highlighted a critical challenge for Europe: How to accelerate AI innovation while safeguarding digital sovereignty, operational independence, and business resilience? With billions invested in sovereign cloud infrastructure across the continent, the conversation is no longer about if sovereignty matters — it’s rather about how fast we can make it real. In this blog we summarize the three key take aways from this summit that also outline why digital sovereignty now is the cornerstone of Europe’s future competitiveness.
1. Sovereignty Is Now a Business Imperative
For years, sovereignty was seen as a regulatory checkbox. Today, it’s a strategic necessity. Geopolitical shifts, cybersecurity threats, and evolving cloud compliance frameworks have made control over data and infrastructure non-negotiable. Europe’s unique stance—where data belongs to citizens, not governments or corporations—sets it apart from the U.S. and China. Google Sovereign Cloud solutions like Google Cloud Dedicated and air-gapped environments are designed to meet these expectations. However, services like BigQuery and Gemini are not (and will not be) available in airgapped environments, which speaks to the service parity of certain sovereign deployment options.
As of now, Google Cloud has one of the most convincing sovereign value propositions in the hyperscaling world. The joint venture with S3NS in France is made in such a way that the deployment of Google Cloud on S3NS infrastructure is not subject at all to US jurisdiction, The worst it can happen in case of a kill switch being pulled in the US is that Google Cloud cannot send updates. This, however, does not come for free: The S3NS services will see a price uptick of 15% to 20% compared to their public cloud sovereign twins.
2. AI and Cloud Apps Development Are Driving the Next Wave of Growth
According to data presented at the summit, the AI opportunity is massive — estimated at $400 billion in revenues over the next decade, with 75% tied to applications and services. Google’s $10 billion investment in Belgium and $5.5 billion in Germany for cloud infrastructure signals a strong commitment to the region. Sovereign solutions, powered by GPUs from NVIDIA and Google TPUs, enable organizations to build locally compliant, high-performance applications. The ultimate goal? Empower businesses to focus on app development rather than infrastructure headaches.
This is specifically applicable to the defense sector. According to Robin Anderton-Brown, former director of the UK strategic command at the UK Ministry of Defense and other panelist at the summit, the European defense industry has been mostly focusing on hardware. But it has become clear that software-enabled capabilities are going to win the battle. Meanwhile the defense sector has accumulated a massive tech debt that it has to repay. Nowadays it is the military adopting civilian solutions, contrary to what used to happen in the past, hence the urgency for sovereign solutions in the market.
3. Partnerships and Policy Are Key to Success
Sovereignty isn’t just a tech challenge – it’s a governance challenge. Google Cloud’s initiatives like S3NS in France and the partnership with StackIT in Germany show how collaboration between hyperscalers and local partners can deliver secure, compliant solutions. These partnerships ensure encryption keys, data boundaries, and operational control remain local, while customers enjoy the same seamless experience as public cloud across environments.
The partnership with StackIT is offering an interesting alternative to the Microsoft suite. StackIT runs the encryption keeping Google out of the Google’s workspace and mirrors customer data in its own cloud data centers to protect against the perils of a kill switch being pulled. Demand to replace Redmond’s solution is increasing according to Michael Brenzel, MD of Workspace by StackIT.
What It Means
Digital sovereignty is not a future trend — it’s happening now. Whether you’re in defense, finance, healthcare, or the public sector, the time to act is today. Start by assessing your tech stack, exploring sovereign cloud options, and preparing for sovereign AI-driven transformation. Don’t wait for regulations to force your hand—embrace sovereignty as a competitive advantage.
Reach out to Forrester and schedule a guidance session or an inquiry to help guide your sovereign cloud strategy and dig deeper into the broader concept of digital sovereignty.
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