In the age of artificial intelligence, startups, online services, and cloud technologies, data has become a critical strategic asset.
As data constantly moves between different platforms and locations, it not only needs to be safeguarded from external threats, but also readily available to fuel innovation.
With its laser focus on growth, the UK is constantly on the lookout for such data solutions – to enable businesses to leverage the cloud for innovation while ensuring compliance with all data protection regulations. As a result, there is growing interest in the concept of “sovereign” or “trusted” cloud solutions. These cloud services aim to provide organisations with the benefits of cloud computing while guaranteeing data sovereignty and alignment with relevant data protection frameworks.
Although there is no standard definition of what constitutes a “sovereign cloud,” there is a general understanding that it must ensure sovereignty at three fundamental levels: data, operations, and infrastructure. Sovereign cloud solutions, therefore, have highly demanding requirements when it comes to digital security and the protection of sensitive data, from technical, operational, and legal perspectives.
The sovereign cloud concept also opens up avenues for competition and innovation, particularly among local cloud service providers within the UK. In a recent PwC survey, 78% of UK business leaders said they have adopted cloud in most or all areas of their organisations. However, many of these cloud providers operate and function outside of the country, usually across the pond. The development of sovereign cloud offerings provides the perfect push for UK cloud service providers to increase their market share, providing local tools to power local innovation.
For a large-scale, accessible, and competitive sovereign cloud ecosystem to emerge, a combination of certain factors is essential. Firstly, partnerships are crucial. Developing local sovereign cloud solutions that offer the same benefits and ease of use as large hyperscalers is a significant challenge. Imposing strict limits on data mobility can restrict the services available to users, thereby limiting the economic benefits and innovation potential of these solutions. Partnerships between global technology leaders, such as VMware, and local cloud providers facilitate the creation of sovereign public clouds. This can be achieved by enabling local cloud service providers to customise their solutions and manage complex environments while adhering to genuine digital sovereignty requirements, unlike hyperscalers located in the United States.
Secondly, cloud innovators in the UK need access to the best technologies, without having to constantly renew their technological base. Subscription-based models, rather than perpetual licenses, offer this access by aligning the interests of customers and suppliers around stable and predictable costs. This approach provides both optimum return on investment and immediate access to the latest innovations for local cloud providers.
Lastly, choice and flexibility are essential. Even with the right partnerships and incentives in place, businesses can still face significant technical obstacles, particularly when it comes to moving from one cloud solution to another. The current heterogeneity of cloud products and licensing structures on the market forces businesses to constantly reconfigure their applications and secure or renew licenses for the functionalities they use, at significant cost.
In a competitive environment, customers should be able to move their data freely from their private or public clouds to sovereign cloud solutions and vice versa, without hindrance or additional cost. The only way to make this possible is through license portability and technology compatibility, which, through uniform pricing and an integrated set of standards and features, enables enterprises to switch to the cloud solutions of their choice.
Ultimately, all of these factors need to be guided by a desire to support customers in their digital transformation journeys; to give them greater choice, and to allow them to achieve their technology goals. This will also lead to the creation of a resilient sovereign cloud market in the UK – in turn powering innovation and growth in the country.
About the Author
Martin Hosken is Field CTO, Cloud Providers at Broadcom. Broadcom Inc. is a global technology leader that designs, develops and supplies a broad range of semiconductor, enterprise software and security solutions. Broadcom’s category-leading product portfolio serves critical markets including cloud, data center, networking, broadband, wireless, storage, industrial and enterprise software. Our solutions include service provider and enterprise networking and storage, mobile device and broadband connectivity, mainframe, cybersecurity and private and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
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