Category: News

Different definitions and strategies: Moderated by Carolina Hayder, Cloudera, Trend Micro, Zoho, Retarus, and Genesys presented their own unique perspectives on digital sovereignty. Photo: Peter Knoll

“Digital sovereignty” is a concept currently in vogue in EU. But what exactly is it, how can it be achieved, and what measures need to be taken? TELI board member Peter Knoll attended an international panel discussion in search of answers.

Five companies, five approaches that differ significantly in some respects: At an event in Munich hosted by a well-known PR agency, a panel featuring representatives from major international IT corporations highlighted key aspects of digital sovereignty—defined as the right to act free from external interference.

Steffen Märkl, Director of Solutions Engineering (CEMEA) at Cloudera, was the first to speak. The US-based company specializes in big data, data management, and artificial intelligence (AI), integrating various open-source technologies in the process. “True sovereignty means maintaining absolute legal, operational, and technical control over the entire data and AI lifecycle,” said Märkl.

This encompasses four areas: data sovereignty (e.g., control of data under local laws), technical sovereignty (avoiding vendor lock-in through open source, open standards, and interoperability), AI sovereignty (development on one’s own infrastructure, protection of proprietary data, etc.), and operational sovereignty. By the latter, Cloudera means that administration, maintenance, and support must be carried out exclusively by authorized local personnel within trusted jurisdictions.

A four-pillar architecture

According to Steffen Märkl, a sovereign architecture within the EU must therefore rest on four pillars:

• the provider must have a local presence with staff in the EU
• there must be a “cloud-anywhere” platform featuring an open, hybrid architecture with a secondary abstraction layer
• and there must be unified governance
• and cryptographic sovereignty to ensure data remains under the customer’s control.

Autarky as a myth

In contrast, Dirk Arendt—Director of Government, Public, and Healthcare (DACH region) at TrendAI—warned against demands for regional isolation. Trend Micro specializes in security software; TrendAI collaborates with the US-based AI developer Anthropic to advance AI-native workflows, automation, and risk mitigation, integrating Anthropic’s large language model (LLM), Claude.

“Sovereignty means freedom of choice—not isolation,” said Arendt. He argued that complete technological self-sufficiency—isolating oneself from the global digital landscape—is “neither achievable nor desirable in an interconnected world.” The reality is not the “myth of autarky,” but rather self-determination. Freedom of choice exists among capable partners, and acting with self-determination is both possible and necessary.

Independence through ownership structure

Suvish Viswanathan, Regional Director DACH at Zoho, readily seized upon the topic of the Cloud Act to confidently position his company as an alternative to Microsoft Office. Zoho offers more than 60 products and 45 integrated applications.

Diverse requirements: According to Zoho executive Suvish Viswanathan, true digital sovereignty entails more than just having a data center in the EU. Photo: Peter Knoll

The India-based company is owner-managed, allowing it to operate with a long-term perspective—free from short-term investor influence—in line with its corporate motto: “People over profits.”

Suvish Viswanathan noted: “Data processed by a company registered in the US is automatically subject to US law—including potential requests based on the Cloud Act.”

Consequently, he argued, “it does not matter where the data center is located; the decisive factor is the legal jurisdiction, not the physical location.” Sovereignty arises where companies retain control over their data, processes, and technological decisions. A provider’s ownership structure, business model, and strategic independence can be just as relevant in this regard as technical or regulatory factors.

A stark contrast: safety awareness vs. actual safety

Nevertheless, only 47% felt “fully audit-ready.” “80 percent of decision-makers believe they have their email environment under control,” Oliver Paetz said, citing the study. Yet the reality is that roughly half use providers based outside Europe. The keys to sovereignty, he noted, are “observability and identity management”—far more than a European data center alone could offer.

100% digital sovereignty requires control over four areas, emphasizes Retarus product manager Oliver Paetz. Photo: Peter Knoll

In the final keynote address, Yasser Yoshua Wardasbi—Senior Manager for the European Sovereign Region (EMEA) at Genesys—spoke more about the lack of customer satisfaction with German public administration’s digital services than about the originally agreed core topic (though he did touch upon it). His thesis was that trust is fundamental to the political survival of democracy. The guiding question, he argued, is: “Will the digital service remain controllable and available—even in the face of extraterritorial pressure and geopolitical tensions?”

In the ensuing—and at times heated—discussion, several IT journalists present emphasized the importance of having a genuine alternative to major US corporations. There was a consensus that the use of LLM-based AI is not sensible or appropriate in every area; often, simpler methods—such as standard machine learning—suffice, consuming less computing power and, consequently, less energy.

All panelists agreed that monopolies pose a major threat to digital sovereignty, while acknowledging the significant hurdles—especially for international enterprises—involved in moving away from them.

Picture: Radimir Vrba. Photo by Jitka Janu, © CEITEC

Founded just 15 years ago, on June 6, 2011, the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) is already considered one of the leading institutions in the field of basic technical research. CEITEC is an educational and research institution in Brno, Czech Republic. It specialises in life sciences, advanced materials, and nanotechnology research and attracts doctoral students from around the world. TELI Board Member Peter Knoll spoke with Professor Radimir Vrba, Director of CEITEC BUT, about CEITEC’s successful strategy.

Peter Knoll: Professor Vrba, there is a striking number of international doctoral students at CEITEC, including some from outside Europe. Which advantages does CEITEC offer compared to other universities? 

Radimir Vrba: CEITEC is a research institute, founded by a consortium of six universities and research institutes coordinated by Masaryk University, where Masaryk University (MU) and Brno University of Technology (BUT) have played key roles in the consortium. All consortia partners can be found on www.ceitec.eu. Now we are speaking only about a part of the whole CEITEC located within BUT, with approximately 470 employees and around 130 doctoral students. Its main mission is research, with a strong connection to PhD education.

What CEITEC offers doctoral students is a highly international, research-focused environment, access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, and the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams and competitive European research networks. For young researchers, this combination of advanced facilities, international supervision, and close involvement in research projects is a major advantage.

Peter Knoll: The Czech Republic has seen an average inflation rate of 6.9%* over the past five years alone, through the end of 2025. According to consistent reports from students here, housing and restaurant costs in particular have risen dramatically. What steps have been taken to ensure that they can still afford to live here?

Radimir Vrba: You are right that the cost of living in Brno has increased, especially housing and everyday expenses. In response, the guaranteed doctoral income has been increased approximately at 60% compared with the previous level. Many doctoral students receive more than this, especially when they are involved in funded research projects. At present, we consider this level of support sufficient to allow doctoral students to cover reasonable living costs, although we are aware that affordability must remain a priority.

Peter Knoll: The Czech Republic has a long and illustrious tradition as an industrial hub; it was once considered the industrial heartland of the Habsburg Monarchy. Nevertheless, during the discussion between EUSJA delegates and CEITEC members, they mentioned an alarming study showing that only few female high school graduates are considering a STEM degree, 21 percent. That is significantly lower than in Germany and other EU countries. 

What has happened here? Where is this trend leading? How does CEITEC plan to address this?

Radimir Vrba: I should clarify that I was unfortunately not present during that part of the discussion, so I cannot comment on the exact study or figures that were mentioned. My understanding is that the point referred more generally to lower interest in STEM studies among high-school students in the Czech Republic compared with countries such as Germany.

The reasons are complex and would require a broader sociological analysis. My personal view is that one important factor is economic: starting salaries in many STEM professions in the Czech Republic are still not always competitive enough, especially when compared with Germany or with some other career paths within the Czech labour market. If young people do not see a clear economic or social reward for choosing demanding technical or scientific studies, their motivation naturally decreases.

If this trend continues, it could weaken the future talent pool for research, engineering, and innovation. That would be a serious problem for a country with such a strong industrial and technological tradition.

At CEITEC, however, we see a more encouraging picture. More than 52 % of our doctoral students are women, which is something we are proud of. Our role is therefore to provide an open, international, and supportive research environment, to make successful female scientists more visible, and to show young people that STEM can offer meaningful and attractive careers. At the same time, broader changes in education, salaries, and public perception of technical professions will require action beyond CEITEC alone.

Peter Knoll: Rankings like the Global University Rankings for many years tell us the same story: Universities in the U.S. and the UK are supposed to be far ahead of the best universities in the EU. What changes would policymakers need to make?

Radimir Vrba: Rankings are useful, but they do not tell the whole story. The university systems in the U.S., the UK, and continental Europe are built on very different financial and social models. Some top Anglo-American universities operate with enormous budgets and endowments, but this is also connected to a system in which many students leave university with substantial debt. That is not a model Europe should simply copy.

At the same time, we should be honest: in several indicators — Nobel Prizes, breakthrough research, start-up creation, private investment, and the ability to attract global talent — Europe still lags behind the strongest U.S. institutions. A major reason is scale. Very few, if any, European universities operate with budgets comparable to the leading American universities.

For policymakers, the key question is how to strengthen excellence without losing the European principle of accessible education. In my view, this means more stable long-term funding, greater institutional autonomy, less administrative burden, more flexible hiring conditions, and stronger links between universities, research institutes, industry, and investors. Europe does not need to imitate the U.S. model, but it does need to give its best institutions the conditions to compete globally.

Peter Knoll: According to the latest available figures from Eurostat**, the Czech Republic is among the EU countries that invest less in education than the EU average, relative to their share of gross domestic product. How does this affect your work as a university?

Radimir Vrba: Figures expressed as a percentage of GDP are important, but they can also be somewhat misleading if viewed in isolation. They do not fully reflect differences in salaries, living costs, national economic structures, or the way education and research are financed in each country.

That said, the situation in the Czech Republic is certainly not ideal. More stable and predictable public funding would help universities and research institutes plan strategically, invest in people, and maintain high-quality infrastructure. For a research institute such as CEITEC, limited institutional funding means that we must rely heavily on competitive grants and international projects.

At the same time, financing is only part of the issue. Structural changes are also needed, including improvements to the Czech higher education and research funding framework. Despite these limitations, CEITEC’s total income has been steadily growing, mainly because we have become more competitive internationally and more successful in obtaining grants. This is encouraging, but long-term excellence requires both strong external competitiveness and a stronger national foundation.

Peter Knoll: By investing billions of euros in universities of excellence and research networks, Germany has managed to ensure that at least some universities are ranked among the top 50—or even the top 20—including my university, TUM. Does CEITEC aim to become a world leader, and if so, when?

Radimir Vrba: In a way, the question already contains part of the answer. Germany has achieved this position through long-term, large-scale investment in universities of excellence and research networks. The overall Czech national university budget is, of course, not comparable with the resources available to institutions such as TUM or RWTH Aachen.

For CEITEC, the realistic ambition is therefore not to become a global leader in every field, but to become a world-class institute in selected areas where we have a clear competitive advantage. Modern science is strongly linked to access to funding, infrastructure, and the ability to attract excellent people. Without resources on the scale available in Germany or the United States, one has to be strategic. But I dare say that, per unit of invested money, CEITEC has higher performance in its research specialisations than the aforementioned foreign universities.

So yes, CEITEC aims to be among the leading international institutions in specific research areas. In some of them, we are already highly competitive. The goal is to strengthen this position over the coming years through focused investment, international collaboration, and recruitment of outstanding researchers.

Peter Knoll: Thank you very much, Professor Vrba!

* https://www.laenderdaten.info/Europa/Tschechien/inflationsraten.php

** https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/educ_uoe_fine06__custom_17707850/bookmark/table?bookmarkId=8e443487-2f8d-445b-8e65-9d3bd7aec0e0&c=1754910983970