Navigating the New Sovereignty Landscape: Highlights from UpCloud & Solita’s Business Breakfast

On January 22nd, UpCloud hosted a breakfast event together with our strategic partner Solita, bringing together business leaders across industries. The event focused on a topic that has quickly moved to the top of the agenda for many organisations: digital sovereignty.

As geopolitical uncertainty increases and European regulation continues to evolve, organisations are reassessing how they manage data, infrastructure and risk. 

With cloud adoption no longer just about scalability and cost efficiency, businesses are increasingly asking more questions regarding data control and access. This breakfast served as a forum for decision-makers to explore what sovereignty means in practice and how it can be embedded into cloud strategy.

Data ownership and European digital infrastructure.

Emphasizing the growing urgency of digital sovereignty for Europe, Member of Parliament Atte Harjanne, highlighted that Europe stands at a turning point. 

As technological dependency deepens and geopolitical tensions rise, Europe is being forced to redefine what digital sovereignty means and how it is built. Central to this discussion are issues of data ownership, governance and control over critical digital infrastructure.

“I don’t suggest cutting ties with the US, but rather make sure that European businesses would have more weight, that we would know that we are self-sufficient, that we can ensure the security of supply of our critical services and that we build significance in a global digital economy.”

Atte Harjanne, Member of Parliament

Drawing on his experience in security and technology policy, Harjanne outlined a clear vision for strengthening Europe’s digital resilience. He emphasised the need for Europe to retain the capacity to act independently and responsibly, ensuring that digital infrastructure supports democratic values, economic stability and long-term security.y requirement is the level of control that the U.S. based company exercises over the foreign entity. 

Data localisation – Nordics and beyond.

Further supporting Harjanne’s point on enabling European businesses with European technology stack, UpCloud CEO, Arno Schäfer highlighted the growing demands for European data residency and often in-country data residency. 

In ensuring compliance with European regulations, in particular in the public sector, contingency plans and due diligence must be prioritised in ensuring data remains free from the reach of US jurisdictions under the CLOUD Act.

“Hyperscalers’ sovereign cloud is named sovereign but the reality is that these are not sovereign […] the key factor here is jurisdiction.”

Arno Schäfer, CEO, UpCloud

Speaking on UpCloud’s Nordic DC availability expansion, Arno spoke of recently launched DCs in both Denmark and Norway as positive steps for Nordic businesses in ensuring data sovereignty and boosting connectivity with ultra-low latency across the region.   

Strengthening Europe’s Digital Sovereignty, Together.

UpCloud’s corporate structure is designed to enforce the legal and technical separation between the Focusing on the power of European collaboration, Arno and Solita CCO, Aleksi Issakainen underlined the benefits of combining strategic advisory expertise with high-performance European cloud infrastructure. Speaking on UpCloud and Solita’s recent partnership both highlighted how such partnerships enable organisations to assess their readiness, build a practical digital roadmap and move forward with confidence in a rapidly changing environment.

“Sovereignty is not a technology choice, […], it’s really an operating system decision. It’s about how you run, govern and control your technology and business. It’s a different paradigm altogether and it needs to stem from the business decisions.”

Aleksi Issakainen, CCO, Solita

Discussing the four layers of sovereignty – data storage, operation, technology and both legal and judicial, Aleksi highlighted how these elements must be addressed both separately and together. Emphasising that there is no one binary option he explored how a risk-based approach to data sovereignty can support innovation while reducing regulatory and operational risk. 

Conclusion

The business breakfast confirmed that digital sovereignty is no longer a future consideration but a current priority. With the right strategy and partners, organisations can unlock the full potential of the cloud while maintaining control, compliance and long-term resilience.

Interested in exploring European cloud solutions in optimised environments? Reach out to our team to discuss your business needs.