What European data sovereignty really means for your organisation

European data sovereignty and your extra copy

Data sovereignty in Europe means that data about EU residents must remain under the control of European law, especially GDPR, no matter where it is stored or processed. In practice, that is about power and control: who can legally access your data, which courts have jurisdiction, and whether you can always reach and restore your own information when something goes wrong. For modern organisations, ensuring this sovereignty is not only a legal obligation but a business‑critical requirement for resilience and trust.

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What data sovereignty means in Europe

In the European context, data sovereignty is the principle that EU data – particularly personal data – is governed by EU rules such as GDPR and related digital legislation, even when processed by non‑EU providers or in the cloud. European institutions increasingly link this to “digital sovereignty,” emphasising that Europe must retain control over where data resides, who can process it, and which jurisdiction ultimately applies.

For businesses, this boils down to a simple question: is your architecture designed so that EU law really governs access to your data, or could foreign laws quietly override those protections? The answer depends on your technical setup, your contracts, and the locations and jurisdictions of your providers.

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The core need: continuous European control

From a European sovereignty perspective, the core need is continuous, uncompromised control over your data. Architectures and contracts must prevent scenarios where foreign authorities or non‑EU legislation can seize, block, or silently copy your data without going through EU legal safeguards.

Equally important is that nothing – not a foreign court order, not a cloud outage, not a ransomware attack – can deny you access to your own information when you need it most. Sovereignty is therefore about both protection from unwanted access and guaranteed ability to restore operations after disruption.

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Why an extra European copy matters

Relying on a single cloud provider or on infrastructure outside the EU creates both legal and operational risk. If that environment is subject to conflicting non‑EU laws or suffers a major outage, you may suddenly lose control over access, jurisdiction, or availability.

Maintaining an extra copy of your critical data in a European data centre – operated under EU jurisdiction and aligned with GDPR – strengthens your position dramatically. It gives you a sovereign recovery anchor: even if your primary environment is hit by a technical incident or a cross‑border legal conflict, you retain a secure, EU‑controlled base from which to restore services.

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The solution: encryption, EU data centre, DRaaS

A robust, sovereignty‑aligned approach combines three technical pillars that work together to protect both compliance and continuity. These pillars help ensure that EU rules remain in control while your business stays resilient in the face of incidents.

• Encrypted data transfers
  All data flows between your sites and your cloud or recovery platforms should be encrypted end‑to‑end, so that no intermediary can read information in transit. This strongly limits the impact of interception or unlawful access attempts, because any captured data remains cryptographically protected.
• Encrypted storage with EU‑controlled keys
  Data should be encrypted at rest, on‑premises and in the cloud, with encryption keys held under EU governance and not exposed to conflicting non‑EU jurisdictions. This design ensures even infrastructure operators or external authorities cannot access readable data without going through European legal safeguards.
• An independent backup and DRaaS copy in a European data centre
  At least one logically independent backup or replica of critical workloads should reside in a European data centre, managed under EU law and strong security controls. When combined with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), this extra copy can be activated quickly if the primary environment fails, providing GDPR‑aligned availability and a sovereignty‑preserving recovery path.

By combining these elements, organisations gain what European data sovereignty fundamentally seeks: continuous, legally anchored control over who can access data and a reliable, EU‑governed way to restore it when it matters most.