--- title: Sovereign cloud | Infrastructure description: Improve control of your data and infrastructure with an open source sovereign cloud from Canonical url: https://canonical.com/solutions/infrastructure/sovereign-cloud?format=md --- # Sovereign cloud Stay in control of your cloud Geopolitical tensions, evolving regulations, and new security challenges linked to AI have increased enterprises' needs to control and safeguard their infrastructure. Sovereign clouds built with open source components help you gain control over your data, systems, and processing. Choose Canonical to build your sovereign cloud, tailored to meet your organization's individual compliance, data sovereignty, and operational needs. [Contact Canonical](https://canonical.com/contact-us) [Get the essential guide to sovereign clouds ›](https://ubuntu.com/engage/sovereign-cloud-guide) --- ## What is a sovereign cloud? Sovereign clouds are private clouds that help nations and organizations to improve control over their data and ownership of their infrastructure, helping to reduce reliance on cloud providers outside of their region and country. A sovereign cloud can also offer greater resilience for sensitive systems through cryptographic and security features that help to prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to infrastructure and data. --- ## Levels of digital sovereignty in the cloud Overview Data Operational Technology ##### Digital sovereignty in the cloud Digital sovereignty refers to the technologies and services that help to empower organizations to gain and retain control over their infrastructure and data. The specific level of control you require is dictated by your risk tolerance, industry regulations, and legal obligations. While many cloud options exist, sovereign clouds often offer the highest, most comprehensive level of digital sovereignty available. The foundational level of control that cloud solutions can offer is data sovereignty: control over where data is stored (data residency) and the security measures that protect data at rest, in transit, and during processing. Only some clouds will guarantee data sovereignty. This control is critical. Since data is governed by the laws of every region it touches, storing data in the wrong jurisdiction can create significant risks, and may even violate industry-specific and/or national legal or regulatory requirements. Operational sovereignty combines data sovereignty with full visibility into the day-to-day management and maintenance of an organization's cloud. With this independent oversight, you can actively monitor security events, enforce regional compliance, and autonomously restrict access to sensitive systems. Hosted private clouds are a prime example, which provide organizations with dedicated, isolated infrastructure without resource sharing. Technology sovereignty is the highest level of control you can have over your cloud, providing data and operational sovereignty while extending control to the underlying technology. The most effective path to technology sovereignty is through open source software. Unlike proprietary solutions, open source offers more transparency into cloud components, and may provide opportunities to influence the roadmap. Sovereign clouds built with open source software also reduce proprietary vendor lock-in, reducing dependence on foreign vendors. --- ## Why build a sovereign cloud? Reducing reliance on external vendors, mitigating security risk, and new regulations and laws are driving both private enterprises as well as governments and their institutions towards sovereign clouds. ### Mitigating cybersecurity threats Sensitive data, including military information and personal medical records, can be at high risk of cyber threats and foreign interference. Gaining control over both physical infrastructure and code helps you to support robust, safe operations. --- ### Reducing dependence on foreign vendors Sanctions, wars, infrastructure damage – many circumstances beyond your control could bring your cloud operations to a halt. Sovereign clouds help you avoid this risky dependence and take control of your digital future. [Find out more about geopatriation of clouds ›](https://ubuntu.com/blog/what-is-geopatriation) --- ### Meeting compliance and regulations Many countries and entities have adopted data localization mandates, requiring sensitive data to be stored and processed within national boundaries – for example, the NIS-2 directive and the DORA act. Regional and local private clouds are perfectly suited to meet such data localization mandates, where standard public cloud models may not meet the criteria due to their distributed nature. --- ### Gain control over cloud operations Focusing on digital sovereignty is a great way to improve control and transparency of systems, technology, personnel, and organizational access. By asking the necessary questions on sovereignty, an organization gains a deeper understanding of their digital posture and the underlying risks. For operations dealing with sensitive data, or highly regulated industries, this may be a necessary risk management strategy. --- ### Improve resilience and disaster recovery Standard public clouds often mitigate disasters by failing over to international data centers. Depending on the relevant compliance requirements, this may violate compulsory or voluntary frameworks to meet critical resilience and disaster recovery standards. Sovereign clouds can support high availability and data recovery while mitigating legal risk. --- ## How are sovereign clouds used in industry? ### Public sector Sensitive, personal, and potentially secret state information requires shielding to support the integrity of government services and protect national security. --- ### Legal firms Legal firms need to ensure that their highly confidential and privileged information is completely controlled. Entire cases could depend on it. --- ### Health care Medical organizations are tasked with safeguarding individuals' most sensitive medical and personal information. They also need to protect their operations and life-saving equipment against disruptions. --- ### Financial Financial organizations have regulatory and legal requirements to keep highly sensitive information safe from cyberattacks. A sovereign cloud provides these institutions more autonomy over their infrastructure and data. --- ### Highly regulated industries These are just some examples of the verticals that are taking advantage of sovereign clouds. The benefits of digital sovereignty extend to any heavily regulated industry that has a vital interest in controlling its infrastructure and guarding its data. --- ## Building an open source sovereign cloud Overview MAAS Ceph Landscape Ubuntu OS MicroCloud OpenStack Kubernetes Canonical's well-established open source components are backed by up to 15 years of long-term support, helping to ensure the enduring stability and reliability of your sovereign cloud investment. Integrate our components into your existing stack, or combine them for a unified, end-to-end sovereign cloud solution. Every cloud requires servers to support workloads. However, server management and maintenance can be hugely time consuming. MAAS lightens this burden. It streamlines the entire hardware lifecycle, enabling automated and remote server provisioning, configuration, installation, deployment, and discovery, all in a single workflow. [Discover MAAS ›](https://canonical.com/maas) Canonical Ceph is an elastic distributed storage system which combines block, file, and object storage at scale, making it a strong foundation for sovereign clouds. [Discover Canonical Ceph ›](https://canonical.com/ceph) Landscape automates security patching, auditing, access management, and compliance tasks across your Ubuntu estate to keep sovereign cloud systems running smoothly. It helps organizations to remotely update and upgrade machines, as well as managing users and their permissions — on a single pane of glass. [Discover Landscape ›](https://ubuntu.com/landscape) Each element in Canonical’s sovereign cloud software stack is optimized to run on Ubuntu. Through features like AppArmor, File Encryption, Stack Protector, and UEFI Secure Boot, Ubuntu prioritizes user privacy and system integrity by default — which is key for sovereign clouds. With [Ubuntu Pro](https://ubuntu.com/pro), enterprises get up to 15 years of security maintenance for thousands of open source packages, tools for compliance, and the option to add 24/7 enterprise support. [Discover Ubuntu ›](https://ubuntu.com/pro) Canonical’s MicroCloud has a low barrier to entry, with automated deployment and on-site operations. MicroCloud helps you create a sovereign cloud in minutes, from a single node, to 50 node clusters. [Discover MicroCloud ›](https://canonical.com/microcloud/what-is-microcloud) OpenStack is a highly customizable cloud platform, used for everything from a regional public cloud, to an on-premise extension of the public cloud, to sovereign clouds. [Discover Canonical OpenStack ›](https://ubuntu.com/openstack) Canonical Kubernetes makes building sovereign clouds across multiple environments that align with your compliance and IT requirements much easier. It provides a layer that makes data and AI applications portable across development frameworks, with minimal adaptations or configuration changes. [Discover Canonical Kubernetes ›](https://ubuntu.com/kubernetes) --- ## What customers say --- *"Where other infrastructure providers in Switzerland that use traditional technologies might charge customers a premium uplift per year, we can offer the same capabilities for ten times less while still achieving a better margin."* --- **Thomas Taroni** VP of Product, Phoenix Systems --- [Read the case study  ›](https://ubuntu.com/engage/phoenix-systems-case-study-ibm-openstack) --- *"We needed a cloud solution that was stable, reliable, and performant. Canonical allowed us to do this by helping to design and deploy our cloud – and they helped us do this quickly."* --- **Peter Blain** Director of Product and AI, Firmus --- [Read the case study  ›](https://ubuntu.com/engage/kubernetes-openstack-case-study-firmus) --- *"Knowledge transfer was another reason we chose to partner with Canonical. To minimize long-term operating costs, we don't want to be reliant on any third party. Canonical is giving our staff the training they need to be able to manage the cloud completely self-sufficiently."* --- **Jahanzeb Arshad** VP of Operations, Nayatel --- [Read the case study  ›](https://ubuntu.com/engage/nayatel-casestudy-charmed-openstack) --- *"We wanted to consolidate onto a single, open platform. That way, we wouldn't be tied to a single vendor, and we'd be able to change parameters at will. The goal was to develop our skills so that we could work with any partner in one cloud environment."* --- **Macdonald Chamba** Head of Infrastructure and Cloud Services, Telekom Networks Malawi --- [Read the case study ›](https://ubuntu.com/engage/tnm-managed-openstack-case-study) --- ## Canonical offers cloud design and delivery at a fixed price. [Get in touch ›](https://canonical.com/contact-us) --- ## Take the next step in your journey [### Rethinking virtualization: open source alternatives for resellers](https://ubuntu.com/blog/virtualization-alternatives-guide) Explore powerful open source alternatives to mainstream hypervisor, storage, and other cloud services. [### Download our business guide to multi-cloud](https://ubuntu.com/engage/multi-cloud-business-guide) Learn how to build multi-cloud infrastructure with our guide. [### Software-defined storage for enterprises](https://ubuntu.com/engage/software-defined-storage-for-enterprises) Learn how Ceph enables you to keep up with the demands on your storage infrastructure. [### Browse Canonical's Managed IT Services](https://ubuntu.com/managed) Explore the different ways that Canonical’s Managed Solutions can simplify your operations. Close ### Contact Canonical