Imagine being the parent of a 4-year-old child and receiving a call from a hacker group calling themselves Radiant, informing you of the theft of personal information—including photographs—in a cyber-attack they’ve conducted on the nursery your child attends. They put pressure on you in an attempt to force the nursery chain to pay up the ransom amount.

Referring to this incident at the end of September 2025, a commentator said this was “an absolute new low” for cyber criminals: to go after young children.

What is even more surprising is that cyber criminals are not only hacking into large corporations across industries like retail, automotive, airports, and healthcare, but they are also starting to focus their attacks on softer targets. Given how safe our public sector agencies are (like local councils, healthcare trusts, smaller police agencies, non-governmental organisations, consumer owned co-operative societies), it makes you wonder who could potentially be the next soft targets!

Organizations are talking about digital sovereignty

In recent months, the topic of digital sovereignty has arrived in the mainstream. Rightfully so. Cybersecurity threats coupled with geo-political tensions are said to be the predominant reason for this attention.

But more importantly, digital sovereignty sits at the intersection of economics, national security, and personal rights. For public sector agencies, national security organizations, utilities, healthcare, and other critical industries, these uncertainties are not theoretical. They demand clarity, control, and resilience. In response, SAP is stepping into the debate— not just offering technology, but also reimagining what digital sovereignty means in a cloud and AI‑driven world.

SAP’s approach to digital sovereignty

SAP’ approach to digital sovereignty encompasses four dimensions:

• Data sovereignty: SAP stores all your data including metadata in-country —eliminating unauthorized cross-border transfers.
• Operational sovereignty: Research shows that people aspect is the weakest link in many cybersecurity strategies. SAP ensures sensitive operations stay local. Only approved personnel—local nationals or those from trusted countries—handle administration and maintenance, with required security clearance to minimize risks.
• Technical sovereignty: Control planes are hosted locally with strong separation enforced through encryption or dedicated infrastructure. Reducing possibilities for co-ordinated hack attacks
• Legal sovereignty: Governance stays aligned. Legal entities are based locally or in approved countries.

SAP is operationalizing sovereignty across cloud, AI, and governance layers, providing you with choice. Depending on the respective country or territory, you can choose based on your classification level and secrecy requirements, budget, and flexibility.

• SAP Sovereign Cloud on hyperscaler: SAP partners with premium Hyperscalers to provide the ability to swiftly scale resources based on needs. This flexibility, paired with seamless integration, enables you to innovate faster while maintaining operational efficiency.
• SAP Sovereign Cloud On-Site: Infrastructure operated by SAP within a data centre of the customer or selected by the customer. It combines local physical control with our operational expertise, ensuring full autonomy while providing full access to SAP cloud innovations and maintaining SAP support and compliance standards.
• SAP Sovereign Cloud on SAP Cloud Infrastructure: SAP's own IaaS platform is based on open-source technologies, runs on the SAP data centre network.

SAP is actively driving innovation to make sovereign AI available

What’s on the roadmap? Development and use of artificial intelligence technologies that are controlled and regulated according to jurisdictional requirements adhering to local interests and values.

Digital sovereignty is no longer optional. For governments and critical industries, it’s time to formulate and evaluate your sovereignty strategy.

Ask yourself:

• How resilient are my operations against cross‑border risks?
• Can I adopt AI and cloud securely?
• What dependencies exist in my digital infrastructure?

With SAP, the path to digital sovereignty is not about compromise; it’s about building resilience while accelerating digital transformation.