Cloud, data and AI architecture
Secure, compliant cloud infrastructure designed for European organizations.
European cloud sovereignty ensures that data and services remain under the control of European
entities, hosted within the EU, subject to European law, and protected from foreign access.
This is essential for trust, compliance, and digital autonomy.
And this also might prove to be essential for a sustainable business model for European organizations.
Neural Layer evaluates cloud providers based on their alignment with the European cloud sovereignty objectives.
Approach
The EU created a framework for digital sovereignty to ensure that European data and services
remain under the control of European entities, hosted within the EU, subject to European law,
and protected from foreign access. An overview can be found
at Cloud
Sovereignty Framework.
Neural Layer scores the providers based on their alignment with these European cloud sovereignty
objectives and your use cases. After each objective has been evaluated, a weighting is applied to calculate an overall score for each provider,
which can be used to compare and select the most suitable cloud solution for your needs.
European cloud sovereignty defines a set of objectives that cloud providers must meet to be considered sovereign. Providers that meet these objectives can offer solutions that align with the needs of European organizations seeking to maintain sovereignty over their digital assets.
| Objective | Description |
|---|---|
| Strategic Sovereignty | Strategic sovereignty captures the degree to which the services of a cloud provider (or technology actor) are anchored within the European Union legal, financial, and industrial ecosystem. It assesses ownership stability, governance influence, and alignment with EU strategic priorities. |
| Legal & Jurisdictional Sovereignty | Legal & Jurisdictional sovereignty evaluates the legal environment, exposure to foreign authority, and enforceability of rights that govern the services of a technology provider. It determines the extent to which the services are anchored in European jurisdiction and insulated from external legal claims. |
| Data & AI Sovereignty | Data & AI sovereignty focuses on the protection, control, and independence of data assets and AI services within the EU. It addresses how data is secured, where it is processed, and the degree of autonomy customers retain over AI capabilities. |
| Operational Sovereignty | Operational sovereignty measures the practical ability of EU actors to run, support, and evolve a technology independently of foreign control. It focuses on continuity of operations, skill availability, and resilience against external dependencies. |
| Supply Chain Sovereignty | Supply chain sovereignty evaluates the geographic origin, transparency, and resilience of the technology supply chain, focusing on the extent to which critical components and processes remain under EU control or exposed to non-EU dependencies. |
| Technology Sovereignty | Technology sovereignty evaluates the degree of openness, transparency, and independence in the underlying technological stack, ensuring EU actors can interoperate, audit, and evolve solutions without lock-in to foreign proprietary systems. |
| Security & Compliance Sovereignty | Security & Compliance sovereignty measures the extent to which security operations, compliance obligations, and resilience measures are controlled within the EU, ensuring independence from foreign jurisdictions and long-term operational assurance. |
| Environmental Sustainability | Environmental sustainability assesses autonomy and resilience of cloud services over the long term in relation to energy usage, dependency and resource management within EU systems. |
The table provides indicative scores for various cloud providers based on their alignment with the European cloud sovereignty objectives. These scores are meant to give a general sense of how well each provider meets the criteria, but actual suitability may vary based on specific use cases and requirements.
For an evaluation specific to your use cases, please contact us at info@neurallayer.com.
| Provider | Indicative Score |
|---|---|
| OVHcloud / Scaleway / StackIT | 75–85% |
| Hetzner | 70–80% |
| Azure Sovereign Cloud | 50–65% |
| AWS Sovereign Cloud | 55–65% |
| Standard AWS/Azure/GCP EU regions | 40–50% |
Challenges
Achieving full cloud sovereignty in the EU is complex and involves navigating a range of challenges across the supply chain, strategic investments, and operational capabilities. Providers must address these challenges to meet the sovereignty objectives and provide solutions that align with the needs of European organizations.
EU operated cloud providers often rely on hardware, software, and services from non-EU suppliers, creating potential vulnerabilities and dependencies that can undermine sovereignty goals. This is not unique to EU providers, but it is a significant challenge for achieving full sovereignty in the cloud.
Providers like AWS and Azure have significant investments in the EU and are committed to expanding their presence, but they are still foreign companies subject to US jurisdiction and influence. This creates a tension between their strategic investments in the EU and the legal and operational realities of being non-EU entities, which can limit their ability to fully meet the strategic sovereignty objective.
Getting skilled staff, ensuring continuity of operations, and maintaining resilience against external dependencies are critical for operational sovereignty. EU providers may face challenges in building the necessary ecosystem to support these needs independently of foreign control.