Why the future of multi-cloud includes sovereign cloud

Enterprises around the world, and across Australia and New Zealand, are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits of a multi-cloud infrastructure — improved flexibility, scalability and resiliency, along with increased performance and savings.

The VMware FY22 H2 Benchmark Study on Digital Momentum found that 73% of enterprises already use two public clouds and 26% use three or more. By 2024, 81% of enterprises expect to be multi-cloud.

The rise of multi-cloud, however, presents some new challenges for enterprises — especially the ones impacted by increasing regulation on jurisdictional control of data.

Growing concern with data sovereignty

Data privacy and residency regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, are also being implemented in several other countries. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 80% of countries worldwide have enacted or drafted data privacy legislation.

Meanwhile in Australia and New Zealand, data localisation regulations apply to certain industries.

An IDC global report (commissioned by VMware) found that 50% of surveyed organisations in regulated industries — including public sector, financial services and health care — faced a national mandate to leverage clouds that provide complete data sovereignty. 62% of respondents stated they needed a cloud option that provided data sovereignty with complete jurisdictional control and authority over data.

Behind this need is a very clear concern around data sovereignty across regulated industries. 58% of healthcare respondents were very concerned that data (and metadata) on a commercial public cloud may not remain on sovereign soil. In other industries, 43% of education, financial services and government respondents had similar sovereignty concerns.

These concerns are making ‘sovereign cloud’ an important addition in an enterprise’s multi-cloud strategy.

Benefits to the enterprise and the economy

Sovereign cloud helps an enterprise tap into the power of the cloud while meeting regulatory requirements around data privacy, security and sovereignty. Some of the key benefits of a sovereign cloud are:

• Critical data, including metadata, is deployed on a sovereign cloud located in the nation where it is collected.
• Data is subject to only the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction within which it is collected.
• Enhanced security controls help comply with specific security frameworks and compliance standards.
• Data is operated by certified staff, typically citizens with security clearance.
• There is decreased dependence on non-sovereign providers with flexibility to use them for non-critical data storage and management.
• Critical data is used to drive innovation through advanced services like AI and ML while ensuring sovereignty.
• Improved ability to provide differentiated services which are secure and legally compliant.
   

By integrating sovereign cloud into its multi-cloud strategy, an organisation can benefit from increased flexibility by avoiding vendor lock-in and futureproofing its data operations.

A platform for innovation

While, at its core, sovereign cloud is about protecting critical national data, governments are increasingly recognising its importance in enabling economic growth and innovation. Policymakers around the world are now looking to protect investments in data spaces and sovereign cloud can ensure data is stored and managed in compliance with local security and privacy regulations.

With the rapid digitalisation of the economies of Australia and New Zealand, national law-makers are likely to increasingly view sovereign cloud as an important investment in unlocking local economic potential.

A disaster recovery solution

While managing sovereign data, reliable disaster recovery is vital. Users are now expecting 24/7 availability of digital services, meaning that network reliability and resilience are more critical than ever. When a server goes down due to a natural disaster, equipment failure, unplanned outage or a cyber attack, organisations need to recover lost data from a secondary location where it is backed up.

With disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) on sovereign cloud, organisations can have peace of mind that all their critical data is backed up on sovereign infrastructure without compromising on data integrity. With fail-over to services in a sovereign cloud environment, optimal business continuity is ensured. And with the growing need for sovereign cloud due to data security and digital sovereignty regulations such as GDPR, this trend will only continue to gain momentum.

Local providers serve local needs

In nascent cloud adoption markets with limited access to hyperscalers, local sovereign cloud providers can help fulfil the data sovereignty and regulatory compliance requirements of enterprises. A secondary benefit of adoption of local cloud providers is the contribution to the sustainable growth of local communities and a nation’s economy.

Thousands of partners under the VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP) already offer a wide range of cloud services on a geographical basis.

Managing complexity

While there are many distinct benefits to sovereign cloud, it can add to the complexities of managing an organisation’s multi-cloud infrastructure.

Not all data is the same. Deploying the right data to the right cloud is critical in managing multi-cloud.

Sovereign cloud can empower organisations to innovate while protecting critical data in a changing geopolitical landscape. And that is why the future of multi-cloud for an organisation must include sovereign cloud.

Image credit: iStock.com/behindlens