Tag: Sovereign

  • 7. Ai to aiaiai

    I deliberately moved this chapter to the end; not because AI is less important, but because it is often treated as the starting point in sovereignty discussions. In reality, it sits on top of everything we’ve already covered. AI is frequently used as the primary argument by hyperscalers, and in many conversations it becomes the…

  • 6. Terms and Conditions

    This is where the conversation gets uncomfortable, because for all of the removing emotions, the structured risk models, and trade-offs we’ve discussed so far; sovereignty discussions are not just about facts. They are also about perception, and that perception is often shaped by how “Big Tech” is viewed. Organizations may try to stay grounded in…

  • 5. Conversations

    Time to get real.. we talked about all the things we need to take into account. If all is well, we understand difference between hyperscale and any other option. Also that hyperscale today provides real value (at multiple costs) and that we should not expect a “European” (or any other for that matter) hyperscaler soon.…

  • 4. Mitigating risks

    In our previous posts, we discussed sovereignty as a risk, the trade-offs that come with it, and the reality of Europe building its own hyperscale ecosystem. The conclusion we derived from that is not comfortable, but it is essential: There is no architectural pattern, provider choice, or regulatory construct that fully removes sovereignty risk. Not…

  • 3. Sovereign Europe

    In the past few posts we’ve discussed how to address Sovereignty as a risk, what the trade-offs are and now its the “why can’t we build this ourselves” chapter. This is more of an economic background chapter.. but the next post (4) will be about mitigations.. History of hyperscale Hyperscale did not appear overnight. It…

  • 2. Hyperscale advantages

    in our previous posts I’ve described that sovereignty risks are risks that should be evaluated as such. Risks require evaluation that in turn require acceptance or mitigations. Why would we accept a risk, what benefits outweigh that risk, and what options do we have. That’s todays topic. In most discussions, the goal is framed as…

  • 1. Sovereignty Risks

    In the intro I talked about treating sovereignty as a risk. Risks that need to be clarified and put in perspective. Risks are accepted/mitigated based on probability and impact. In sovereignty discussions we often talk about: Now, I’m not going to deny these risks exist. Nor am I going to say you should neglect or…

  • Digital Sovereignty

    This blog is mostly technical, but over the last few years I’ve focussed on the sovereignty aspect of public cloud (well before it became the topic everyone is talking about now). Most current discussions tend to reduce sovereignty to jurisdiction alone, often concluding with: “We can only be sovereign by hosting in Europe.” In the…

  • Azure Sovereign Controls

    I’ve talked about sovereignty in Azure (or cloud in general) before.. and we are going to dive a little deeper into it this time. What is it, how do you configure it, and what guardrails can you put in place? TLDR: I’ve created a few policies that mandate Managed HSM encryption for (supporting) Azure Services.…

  • Azure VM Disk Encryption Options

    Azure provides multiple types of Disk Encryption options. But apart from their features (when you can use which one), lets dive into the how they actually work and differentiate from each other. So this post, in line with Azure for Sovereignty goes into the disk encryption options for Virtual Machines. We have four options for…

  • Azure Confidential VM’s made easy

    There has been a lot of talking about “sovereign” clouds lately. How do you secure your data in the cloud from the CSP (cloud provider) being able to access your data and give it away to regulators? Microsoft has a very clear view on the “cloud-act” and now is working hard to make sure they…