NATO’s battle for cloud sovereignty: Speed is existential
Summary
NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Cyber and Digital Transformation, Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, told a RUSI audience that cloud sovereignty and speed of digital transformation are existential for the alliance. The Ukraine war has exposed how rapidly evolving technologies — drones, AI and cloud-enabled systems — shape modern conflict. Ellermann-Kingombe argued NATO must build a modernised digital backbone to share intelligence faster, accelerate decision-making and maintain operational readiness across allies.
He outlined three dimensions of sovereignty: control over data and its location; operational sovereignty (who operates systems); and technological sovereignty (the ability to continue operating if a provider is sanctioned or withdraws). He warned that full sovereignty can reduce scalability and innovation speed, so NATO will need a mix of models from globally connected clouds to air-gapped environments for highly classified workloads. Cooperation with industry, startups and trusted regional partners will be essential, as will faster, more agile procurement and a tech-savvy bureaucracy.
Key Points
- Cloud sovereignty is framed as existential for NATO: speed in connecting, analysing and acting on data matters more than raw data volumes.
- Three sovereignty dimensions: data location/access, operational control, and technological resilience against provider withdrawal or sanctions.
- Trade-offs exist — sovereignty can limit scalability and innovation speed, so NATO will adopt multiple deployment models (connected clouds to air-gapped enclaves).
- Partnerships between US hyperscalers and trusted European operators are emerging to deliver jurisdictionally isolated clouds that balance control and innovation.
- Urgency, cross-sector collaboration (industry, academia, startups) and agile procurement are highlighted as vital to stay ahead of adversaries using AI, quantum and autonomous systems.
- National investments (eg, the UK’s rapid £140m boost for drone and counter-drone tech) illustrate the move to fund innovation and sovereign capabilities at pace.
Context and relevance
The article connects NATO’s long-term NATO 2030 strategy to immediate operational needs exposed by the Ukraine war. It places digital sovereignty at the forefront of defence planning, signalling that alliance-wide interoperability must be balanced with national control and resilience. For defence, cloud and security professionals, this is a clear policy signal: expect more hybrid cloud models, procurement reform, and funding directed at sovereign-capable technologies and localised cloud offerings.
Why should I read this?
Because NATO just made it official: if you care about defence tech, cloud strategy or national digital sovereignty, this is not hypothetical — it’s urgent. The piece cuts through the buzz and tells you what leaders actually want (speed, control and resilience) — and why they’ll push for hybrid approaches and industry co-operation. Short version: read it to know where funding, procurement and tech priorities will head next.