FEATURE: CLOUD SOVEREIGNTY
Cloud adoption in the Middle East has accelerated rapidly over the past five years, becoming a central pillar of national Digital Transformation strategies across the GCC. Yet as organisations scale their use of cloud, a powerful parallel trend has emerged: a growing demand for cloud sovereignty. Once a niche concern confined to heavily regulated sectors, cloud sovereignty is now shaping procurement decisions, investment strategies, and national digital agendas throughout the region. Intelligent Global Media’ s Ben Leitch investigates. guarantee sovereignty if foreign jurisdictions can still exert influence or access.
Operational sovereignty goes further by emphasising control over the cloud environment itself. It focuses on who can access systems and data, how administrative privileges are managed and whether operational responsibilities are handled locally. This includes oversight of encryption keys, audit logs and support operations – elements that are increasingly important for regulated industries.
What does cloud sovereignty actually mean? For some, it’ s about ensuring data stays within national borders. For others, it’ s about maintaining regulatory control, operational autonomy or protection from foreign jurisdictional risks. As cloud models evolve and geopolitical considerations take centre stage, the term has acquired layers of nuance.
Defining cloud sovereignty
Cloud sovereignty is often used as a catch-all phrase, but in practice it spans several interrelated concepts. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for organisations evaluating cloud strategies today.
Finally, software or digital sovereignty takes a broader national perspective. It reflects the ambition to ensure critical digital infrastructure can operate independently of foreign policy changes, international disputes or shifts in global vendor strategies. As governments in the region push for greater digital self-reliance, this aspect of sovereignty is gaining prominence.
Together, these layers represent a more complete definition of cloud sovereignty: a cloud environment in which an organisation retains full legal, operational and strategic control over its data and digital assets.
Why cloud sovereignty matters more in the Middle East
While cloud sovereignty is rising up the agenda worldwide, the Middle East has several unique drivers intensifying the focus on it.
Data sovereignty refers to data being subject to the laws and regulations of the country in which it is stored. For example, if a financial institution in the UAE stores its data in a UAE-based cloud region, that data is governed by UAE legislation rather than the laws of the cloud provider’ s home country. This differs from data residency, which focuses on where the data physically resides but does not automatically
Across the GCC, countries have been implementing increasingly robust data protection and localisation laws. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain all have frameworks that mandate local storage and processing of specific data categories, particularly for government entities, financial institutions and healthcare providers. Organisations must now provide clear evidence that cloud vendors can guarantee
Why is cloud sovereignty becoming non-negotiable in the Middle East?
24 INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST www. intelligentcio. com