Why Digital Sovereignty is relevant

Before we discuss relevance, we have to say the topic of Digital Sovereignty is confusing. There are multiple definitions available, which differ in context and implication from language to language, from industry to industry and depending on your point of view.

To keep it simple, we can say that Digital Sovereignty is the ability to act independently and autonomously in the digital age. For a business or an institution this means retaining control over people and processes, data, infrastructure and business continuity.

Sovereignty is not the preserve of the sovereign. It applies to countries and regions, certainly, but also to companies and public institutions, and also to individuals.

In fact, each time you click ‘accept all’ you are compromising your personal digital sovereignty. Does this matter? Well, it depends.

Let’s start with the public sector. Digital sovereignty has become a critical topic due to recent geo-political change, which has highlighted the dependency of Swiss government operations on foreign ICT, AI and Cloud providers.

The government defines sovereignty at the level of the state and sees the need to retain autonomy at this level. The Federal Justice and Police department go a step further*. They break their policies down into redundancy – having multiple IT installations and data stores; resilience – being able to negotiate an emergency; and residual responsibility, which means retaining control even where processes and systems have been delegated or outsourced.

Now let’s move on to a company, say an industrial firm or a bank. Confidentiality, integrity and availability of data need to be maintained in any case, but due to the current level of threat, increased regulation and reputation risk they need to update their security, resilience and business continuity efforts. If they operate in multiple countries, they have to consider all three levels of sovereignty – the requirements of all countries involved, the freedom of the staff and customers according to local law, and the continuity of the business across borders.

These are not new topics, but they have gained new meaning. In summary, digital sovereignty is relevant for all of us. Retaining control over business operations is a must, and with new technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber-crime and geo-political uncertainty this challenge has got more complicated.

If that is the bad news, then the good news is that you do not need the same level of sovereignty for everything. Clicking ‘accept all’ on your local store’s website is unlikely to be an issue. A public institution has to ensure public data is available and consistent, but not confidential. An industrial firm has to ensure its production sites are protected, but does not have the same exposure to cyber theft as a bank. Just as a differentiated approach is necessary for business continuity, risk management or resilience, so it is with digital sovereignty. Every institution, every company needs its own, tailored approach.

At adesso, we master this complexity. Looking at Digital Sovereignty in the dimensions of Business Operations, Skills & Competencies, Data and also Technology, we analyse 18 key topics for the achievement of Digital Sovereignty. We are not looking for comprehensive coverage, but for a level of achievement which matches your objectives and your organisation. This gives us the basis for a workshop where we can derive and prioritise the actions you can take to reach the required level of sovereignty for your organisation.

What are your thoughts? Your needs? Reach out to me personally, I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog, which will focus on digital sovereignty in practice.