Atos pushes data sovereignty for the enterprise

The UK and European governments are in the process of tightening data regulations, plus, geopolitical tensions from Russia and the US mean enterprises are rethinking where and how their data and AI systems operate.

Atos’s new sovereign and agentic AI framework aims to address the demand for sovereign data facilities directly. It has announced three data hubs in the UK and Ireland designed to help organisations achieve data sovereignty and build AI operations that can adapt to changing compliance demands.

The move reflects a broader trend of AI infrastructure shifting from overseas cloud dependence to sovereign, regulated environments. This shift is particularly important in public services, defence, and the increasingly large category of critical national infrastructure (CNI). Here, control, transparency, and resilience are as important as innovation.

Sovereignty meets automation

Atos is grouping its new offerings in three delivery hubs, each addressing a different aspect of digital sovereignty and AI adoption.

Sovereign orchestration hub This site will provide UK-based cloud operations combining IT and operational technology (OT) monitoring, and integrate cybersecurity and network management.

Digital agentic centre This centre will focus on AI-driven automation. Atos hopes clients will be able to cut development and testing time of new AI systems by around half, it says.

Sovereign digital enablement centre (DEC) Supported by Microsoft and AWS, among others, this hub will be a sandbox for development and testing. It will allow defence and CNI organisations and research institutions to co-develop and test digital systems in secure, sovereign environments, using industry-standard hosting and infrastructure.

Together, the hubs combine local control with what the company terms ‘global cloud alignment’ – that is, running on standard infrastructure, but on sovereign soil for a greater degree of control.

Implementation and challenges

Digital sovereignty has evolved from being a compliance issue into an operational model, especially as uncertainty grows over policies emanating from the US executive. Yet making sovereignty work in practice will depend on execution in three areas:

Integration and governance: Linking sovereign cloud services with widely-accepted hybrid or multi-cloud architectures demands data governance and interoperability frameworks. Enterprises will need to ensure that AI agents, automation tools, and on-premise systems operate inside carefully-demarcated security boundaries.

Skills and culture: Atos says it intends to recruit graduates and apprentices for AI, cybersecurity, and cloud roles. This is in line with the idea that sovereign technology strategies require sovereign talent. New roles will focus on explainable AI, secure software development, and lifecycle sustainability, the company says.

Ecosystem coordination: Collaboration with major cloud vendors and smaller innovators will be important to ensure that sovereign deployments do not exist in technological isolation. The DEC’s partnership model shows how national technology ecosystems can support cross-platform experimentation yet maintain security.

Michael Herron, head of Atos UK & Ireland, said: “For businesses in public services, defence and national infrastructure, sovereign AI isn’t optional. It’s about ensuring safe, reliable digital development under full control.”

Strategic changes

Data sovereignty can be an enabler and a market differentiator. Designing operations around trusted, auditable AI environments can reduce long-term compliance risk and simplify data governance.

In combination with infrastructure, the development of in-country AI, cloud, and cybersecurity expertise helps create long-lasting data autonomy and resilience at national levels. The combination of sovereign environments with hyperscale partnerships with the likes of Microsoft, AWS, Google, IBM could mean the optimum balance between flexibility and data integrity.

Sovereignty can also be aligned with sustainability, as energy-efficient, locally managed infrastructure can support regulatory and environmental goals – more stringent on this side of the Atlantic.

(Image source: “‘The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything’” by aqfangjiea is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)

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