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Traditional data protection followed a straightforward principle: Data stored in is protected by the laws of country A; data stored in country B is protected by the laws of country B. But in today’s global economy, where your data physically resides no longer determines which governments can demand access to it.

Cloud infrastructure brought new jurisdictional complexity. The physical location of data centers, the nationality of the cloud provider's headquarters, and the entity controlling operations can each create competing jurisdictional claims, potentially allowing multiple governments to demand access to the same data.

What is digital sovereignty?

This challenge has a name: digital sovereignty. Digital sovereignty is the principle that organizations maintain complete control over their data within their home jurisdiction's legal framework. This idea has become a necessity for organizational resilience as businesses work in a more fractured, less trusting geopolitical world. Private and public organizations need secure access to cloud-based platforms that are compliant with local regulatory requirements and shielded from the known or unknown geopolitical risks their region faces.

How the U.S. CLOUD act impacts EU data residency

The 2018 US CLOUD (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data) Act further cemented these concerns for EU organizations. This law empowers US law enforcement to compel any US-based cloud provider to produce data stored anywhere globally — regardless of the data's physical location or the customer's nationality.

Both the US CLOUD act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) have given firms in the European Union cause for concern. Through these two policies, US authorities could access data contained within cloud platforms of any US-headquartered organization, even when the cloud data center is stationed in another country.

For EU‑based companies, using US‑based tools triggers specific GDPR obligations because personal data leaves the EU. And since the EU–US Privacy Shield was invalidated (known as “Schrems II”), EU companies need other protections. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) remain valid but are conditional and complex as they require case-by-case review.

A subsequent Data Privacy Framework has been introduced since, but underlying trust among the nations involved only goes so far. These dynamics increased pressure to ensure data protection, and so sovereign cloud solutions were needed to ensure operational resiliency.

Ivanti Neurons for MDM – Sovereign Edition: built for EU cloud sovereignty

For our partners and customers in the EU, Ivanti Neurons for MDM Sovereign Edition addresses these requirements through fundamentally different architecture and operations. Located in Germany and independently operated, this solution was designed to align with the Cloud Sovereignty Framework of the European Commission and has been evaluated by the highly reputable cyberintelligence.institute, where their expert assessment explained:

“The Ivanti Sovereign Cloud demonstrates a high level of European control in the areas of data processing, security and compliance governance. In its current configuration, the Ivanti Sovereign Cloud achieves at least SEAL 2 certification, meaning that data sovereignty is ensured in all areas. Furthermore, the Ivanti Sovereign Cloud meets the requirements for SEAL 3 certification in many relevant areas, thus achieving digital resilience.”

You can read the full technical assessment to learn more.

Achieving data sovereignty compliance with confidence

Neurons for MDM – Sovereign Edition – EU provides European firms with a strategic foundation for their IT and Security platform from a trusted leader, while maintaining local jurisdictional protections for risk management. This means public and private entities can continue their digital transformation with the confidence that their cloud data will remain secure while their operations gain resilience.

Next steps? Read our whitepaper, Sovereign Cloud as a Strategic Necessity for European Organizations, to discover how Ivanti Neurons for MDM Sovereign Edition achieves and exceeds SEAL 2 certification and provides the sovereign cloud architecture European organizations need to maintain data sovereignty while enabling secure digital transformation.