Data Sovereignty - in the cloud, hybrid or on-premise
Why data sovereignty is the foundation for (cyber) resilience
Data Sovereignty: The Maturity Level That Data Security and Control Need Today
If a company's data sovereignty is compromised, the protection of sensitive data is at stake, along with business continuity and competitiveness – at least in the event of data loss. In highly regulated industries such as finance, healthcare and public administration in particular, business and security objectives can hardly be separated from data protection, compliance and IT security issues today. In view of the continuing rise in cybercrime and geopolitical uncertainties, companies and organisations rely on this integrated approach.
Digital sovereignty therefore encompasses a level of maturity for business continuity and risk management that, hand in hand with cyber resilience, can only be achieved through a comprehensive strategy and maintained through resilient approaches.
Trend: This is the state of cloud sovereignty across Germany - from the public sector to SMEs and enterprises
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but 0 %
Only 0 %
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Source: Handelsblatt Research Institute adesso Study 2025: Digital Sovereignty Index – The German Economy between Self-Determination and Dependence.
What does data sovereignty mean?
Today's "state-of-the-art" approach to data security in companies almost inevitably leads to flexible cloud solutions that seamlessly meet corporate strategy, operational requirements, and increasingly, regulatory demands. However, the choice of systems is often limited by the existing in-house infrastructure. To date, well-known hyperscalers have also been offering widely preferred software solutions in Germany, as they are highly scalable and connectable and strengthen innovation and competitiveness. They have understood that it is all about a cloud infrastructure that guarantees full control without any external access.
Companies that opt for a truly sovereign cloud are confident in their compliance with legal and data protection regulations. They thus retain maximum control over their data and IT infrastructure—and this is fundamental for the secure implementation of NIS2 and DORA.
Data sovereignty? No problem, we only use on-premise...
Today, many companies and public authorities are understandably still reluctant to entrust their data to the cloud. Although multi-cloud or hybrid infrastructures offer several effective levers for strengthening their cyber resilience systems, quite a few continue to rely on purely on-premises infrastructures.
The advantage—and thus data sovereignty—is that the IT infrastructure itself remains entirely in the company's own hands, in its own data centers or on its own servers. Dependencies on external providers or the flow of data in directions that are not fully understood are thus completely eliminated—allowing data protection and compliance requirements to be fully and transparently met.
However, the costs for setup, maintenance, and operation can be significantly higher, more time-consuming, and more personnel-intensive than in a hybrid or cloud infrastructure, since everything that ensures compliance and fault tolerance must be handled internally, and much of it is manual and therefore not infinitely scalable. Aside from the risk of power outages and data or system loss, purely on-premises infrastructure also means significant losses in the speed of innovation, as technologies are evolving ever faster, and keeping pace with these developments is usually much slower on-premises due to the effort required to master the underlying tasks.
We offer consulting services to help you determine the future-proof approach for your IT infrastructure: with regard to cybersecurity – keyword: the new regulations on cyber resilience – AND data sovereignty.
Lern more about our on-premise offers
Frequently Asked Questions in Business and Public Administration
- Where is our data stored and processed?
- Who has access – and under what legal framework?
- What security risks are associated with having workloads in the cloud?
- Can we use cloud services in compliance with the data protection laws applicable to us? Does the cloud provider have access to our content?
- How can we be sure that our data does not leave our region? Can foreign federal authorities access data stored in the cloud?
- How can we future-proof our compliance with regulatory requirements such as NIS2 or DORA without sacrificing our ability to innovate?
The Advantage of Data Sovereignty: Security and Full Control
A European cloud strategy enables scalability and efficiency while adhering to all the organizational, legal, and technological aspects that data security requires today.
For companies and public authorities, full control over their digital assets has become non-negotiable. And with it, the flexibility – not to say freedom – to dynamically adapt their infrastructure to new business models and regulatory developments.
Data Sovereignty: Answers from Leading Providers Like Hyperscalers & Co.
Leading hyperscalers understand that developments can change rapidly, meaning that companies face different challenges regarding security, compliance, and data sovereignty than ever before.
To ensure legal certainty, the question of how to keep your data in Europe no longer hinges solely on location, but also on a clear technological separation from servers outside Europe, preventing any external influence on data access.
Leading technology providers like Microsoft, AWS, and others are responding to these developments with new approaches, such as Sovereignty-by-Design in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
This encompasses aspects such as:
- Data control
- Location transparency
- Encryption built directly into the architecture.
How Companies Achieve Data Sovereignty
The following methods and approaches enable you to ensure control over your data. These concepts are well-known from business continuity and risk management and are frequently used by us to optimize IT infrastructures for greater cyber resilience.
This is achieved through strategic approaches seamlessly integrated with the appropriate technologies, for which we advise our clients and support them in implementation. In this way, companies create the necessary digital sovereignty and maintain control over their data, infrastructure, and partners.
based on a selection of sovereign cloud offerings (e.g. AWS European Sovereign Cloud, StackIT, etc.) combined with on-premises systems.
Use of “trustless” network concepts (the infrastructure operator has no access to it), continuous monitoring and automated recovery (disaster recovery, cleanroom technologies), as have been used and operated at Empalis for many years.
The Cyber Resilience Assessment compares the company's current status with the applicable guidelines. These audit processes, and the resulting clearly defined responsibilities, provide you with an overview of your data classification and access levels.
Together with our partners, we develop tailored training courses, awareness programs, and technical training. This increases security awareness within your company and empowers teams to handle data confidently.
Why Empalis?What we stand for: High-quality technology and - "Perfection through Partnership"
Because: Perfection is only possible together, that's the Empalis credo. Our preferred approaches to implementing these concepts are achieved through our high-quality partnerships (e.g., with AWS European Sovereign Cloud) or as purely European alternatives, such as StackIT:
- AWS European Sovereign Cloud (ESC): Complete data control at the regional level for customers in Europe.
- StackIT, the Schwarz Group's cloud: Sovereign infrastructure "Made in Germany" – with data centers located exclusively in the EU (others include Microsoft Azure EU Data Boundary, Google Cloud Sovereign Controls, OVHcloud, and T-Systems Sovereign Cloud – to name just a few).
We thoroughly examine our partners' technologies long before entering into partnerships. We stand behind this with our name and a long list of established customers – companies that have trusted our judgment for many years.
Learn more about AWS European Sovereign Cloud and its strengths in comparison.
Get to know Empalis and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud and arrange a free initial consultation today.
Philip Röder, Head of Business Development & Consulting
Phone +49 162 4196789
