Exclusive sovereignty delivers compliance while unlocking cloud innovation, cross-industry collaboration, faster product development and secure routes to market.
Today’s digital industries face multiple challenges when it comes to effectively managing their data.
According to a poll of 3,700 senior leaders across 21 countries, three-quarters (75%) of respondents agree their organisation is increasingly concerned about the geopolitical risks associated with storing and managing data in global cloud environments.
At the same time, cyber incidents are now the top global risk in 2025, according to Allianz. High-profile cyber-attacks have resulted in multi-week operational downtime and billions of pounds in losses. Interconnected IT systems and third-party dependencies can amplify business risk, while data consolidation raised the security threshold. While the root causes vary, these incidents highlight the importance of controlling where and how critical data is stored.
To help mitigate this, the UK’s Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has now become law and minimum security and resilience requirements will be introduced for data centres in the UK, along with growing EU data‑governance regulations. While this will help to safeguard data, it also presents a new level of complexity for businesses to contend with. US cloud regulations are already influencing procurement in the UK defence, life sciences, public sector and financial sectors.
“My first 30 minutes every day are spent reading what new rules have been published – globally, not just in the US,” said Scott Sumner, vice president of government and chief information security officer at Dassault Systèmes. “The EU, Japan, Australia… regulations change constantly. Some are clearer than others, leaving room for interpretation. Different stakeholders may interpret a particular rule completely differently from each other.”
Ultimately, there’s a greater need for certainty around where data sits, who can access it and how it’s protected. This means sovereignty has never been more important.
The solution: the UK sovereign cloud
In a recent poll, almost all (92%) senior leaders agreed that that inadequate sovereignty planning could damage their national competitiveness, create constraints and generate risk.
Chris Spaul, director of enterprise solutions and innovation for aerospace and defence (A&D) at Dassault Systèmes, agrees: “A single misplaced control system can cascade across the entire supply chain, he said. “Sovereign cloud gives UK businesses the control and assurance they need.”
The sovereign cloud is a version of cloud computing that ensures all data, including metadata, stays within the UK and is subject solely to UK laws. With single-tenant environments enabled by the sovereign cloud, each customer gains a dedicated virtual space, so there’s no hyperscaler-style multi-tenancy. This provides an additional layer of safety and security.
Ultimately, the sovereign cloud is designed to maintain the agility, elasticity and performance of public cloud, but without the cross-border exposure.
Pioneering businesses are already recognizing it as the gateway to next-generation cloud: BCG analysts expect sovereign-cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) spending to leap from US$37 billion in 2023 to US$169 billion by 2028 – a compound annual growth rate of 36%, versus about 24% for general IaaS spending.
Key benefits of the sovereign cloud
Companies that treat sovereignty as an enabler, not an obligation, are realising key benefits:
Faster routes to market through secure, consolidated data
Many organisations across sectors work together in silos. This not only slows development cycles, but raises security risk and increases cost.
According to BCG, up to 30% of cloud spending is wasted due to inefficient usage, decentralised governance or over-provisioning. Accelerated collaboration enables the secure consolidation of product data, supply chain intelligence and manufacturing insight.
Protection against disruption
A UK sovereign cloud ensures resilience against geopolitical disputes, sanctions or legal extraterritoriality. As a result, it provides operational continuity even if non-UK cloud regions experience disruption. This addresses the zero-risk expectation of UK defence customers.
“A sovereign solution helps if tensions escalate and access to international networks becomes restricted,” said Scott Sumner, vice president of government and chief information security officer at Dassault Systèmes. “By reducing their dependency on cross-border infrastructure, organisations gain greater resilience and compliance.”
It’s time to unlock the power of the sovereign cloud
Sovereignty is now a competitive differentiator. Companies that adopt UK-based, security-led cloud architectures gain the freedom to innovate, collaborate and scale without compromise. Dassault Systèmes has spent years developing its UK sovereign cloud.