Sovereign cloud
In shortA word with no definition. Ask who pulls the plug in an emergency.
"Sovereign cloud" is not a protected term. It is used for at least four different constructions, and they are worth very different amounts.
The four levels
Level 1 — data residency. The data sits in a European data centre. The provider stays American. This is the weakest form and protects against no order at all. See US CLOUD Act.
Level 2 — operational sovereignty. Operations are carried out by European staff, often through a trustee. Access by the parent company is restricted contractually and technically. Better, but the technology and the supply chain remain foreign.
Level 3 — technical sovereignty. The platform itself is European or open source and could keep running without the original vendor. This is where a contract turns into a capability.
Level 4 — full sovereignty. Ownership, operations, technology and keys are all in European hands. Rare and expensive, and not necessary for most use cases.
The question that settles it
Do not ask a vendor whether they are sovereign. Ask: if your parent company is ordered tomorrow to switch us off, who can technically do that, and what happens on our side?
If the answer quotes a contract, it is level 2. If it describes how operations continue without the vendor, it is level 3 or higher.
The honest state of play
Offerings such as Delos Cloud, or the sovereign editions from the hyperscalers, sit at level 2. For many public bodies and companies that is a real improvement on the status quo — they solve the problem of everyday processing, not the problem of being switchable off.
Anyone who needs both ends up at European providers or at running it themselves.