The Rise of the Sovereign Cloud

One of the big ironies about data on the internet is that once the goal of achieving a centreless web of data communication (the internet itself) had been developed and built out, the next area of focus became how to draw borders around it. It’s one thing to be able to send information instantly across the globe, but that runs the risk of it coming to rest in, or simply traveling through, places we don’t want it to. This brings us to the era of digital sovereignty, in which an increasing number of countries are adopting laws and regulations designed to protect the data privacy by defining how it can be securely collected, stored, and used.

Countries, companies, and individuals have their own reasons why data deserves sovereignty and protection. GDPR and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are just two very public representations of data protection, and we are seeing increased policy discussions around access to data in social media applications like Tik Tok.

But digital sovereignty is not a single cut-and-dried concept. There are other elements to consider, such as transparency. Organizations must be compelled to demonstrate what they are doing to help protect people’s data. This can be done through compliance and regulations, but it can also simply be a part of an organization’s culture, showing its customers that it cares about what is happening with the data and providing the necessary visibility. Without transparency, there is no true security around data protection. As the expression goes, “trust but verify.”

The Encryption Challenge

Data users are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of data privacy and consider it to be a basic human right. They demand and expect action from governments, enterprises, cloud providers, and companies. They have become more aware not only of their data as being a personal possession worth protecting, but also that it is increasingly vulnerable to breaches. With ransomware, hacks, and data exfiltration events happening daily, the theft of personally identifiable information (PII) and corpor

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