Sovereign Cloud in Europe: Reaching an Inflection Point

This IDC Market Perspective evaluates the drivers and impact of digital sovereignty in Europe, primarily based on IDC's EMEA Cloud Survey, 2024, and IDC's Worldwide Digital Sovereignty Survey. With interest in digital sovereignty growing globally, Europe is increasingly becoming a key market for global cloud providers. Sovereign cloud implementation can provide many benefits such as an improved ability to control data transfers, future readiness for evolving and new regulations, and enhanced customer trust. But despite its benefits, challenges such as high complexity, costs, and a lack of cloud security skills persist. "Europe's sovereign cloud market is approaching a critical juncture," said Rahiel Nasir, Research Director, European Cloud Strategies and Lead Analyst for Worldwide Digital Sovereignty at IDC. "2025 looks set to become a pivotal year as new sovereign cloud offerings are launched and existing ones start to gain momentum. All this will be set against a background of rising regulations that EU experts now consider be a major hindrance to Europe's ability to push through its innovation capabilities, in addition to greater risks due to a potentially worsening geopolitical climate."