For a long time, sovereign cloud has been more talk than reality. But that era is ending.

Following earlier moves by IBM and SAP, AWS has launched its European Sovereign Cloud, and Nutanix has rolled out expanded capabilities aimed squarely at operating distributed sovereign environments. Combined, those developments turn sovereignty from an abstract concept into a practical buying constraint — one that partners will need to translate, build and support, particularly for regulated customers.

Options expand

The timing isn’t random. The introductions come as cloud computing has reached “an inflection point where its growth and dominance are challenged by sovereignty and geopolitical tensions.” That’s according to Roy Illsley, chief analyst of cloud and data center at Omdia, in the analyst firm’s 2026 Trends to Watch: Cloud Computing report. The firm added that “the rise in sovereign cloud services and AI shows that organizations see data privacy as a top concern.”

That urgency shows up in enterprise intent. In Omdia’s IT Enterprise Insights 2026 survey, 67% of respondents said they will use “some form” of sovereign cloud this year. 

But here’s the catch: Omdia says there is no single official definition of sovereign cloud. That leaves CIOs to interpret what sovereignty means, and who can access what, under each country’s privacy and data protection rules. 

That ambiguity is exactly where the channel opportunity lies, especially with AWS going big in Europe, and rival Nutanix looking to do the same. As sovereign cloud becomes tangible, customers need experts who can translate regulatory language into a defensible architecture and operating plan. And they’ll need that help both when choosing a provider and when proving what’s true after deployment.

Concrete sovereignty

AWS is sending one of the loudest “this is real now” signals. In mid-January, the cloud behemoth announced the general availability of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, positioning it as a new sovereign cloud “for Europe” and pointing to broader expansion across the region. The messaging emphasizes meeting stringent EU sovereignty requirements without compromising on cloud computing capabilities. 

Nutanix, meanwhile, has expanded capabilities to help customers build and operate distributed sovereign clouds. In December, the company said customers get “more choice” in how they run and govern infrastructure across environments and with sovereign-capable cloud providers. Nutanix framed the updates around resilience, security, control and global management.

These launches come in the wake of IBM’s Sovereign Core — positioned as sovereignty built into the software rather than bolted on — and SAP’s pledge to invest in sovereign cloud buildout in Europe, emphasizing sovereignty across its stack. Those efforts provide useful context, but for partners, the newer AWS and Nutanix steps are the ones most likely to reshape near-term projects.

Tangible value

For channel partners, the AWS and Nutanix updates point to immediate opportunities — and friction that will slow deals if ownership isn’t clear.

For example, AWS describes its sovereign cloud as a new, independent platform for Europe: entirely located within the EU, and physically and logically separate from other AWS Regions. Yet, that framing forces a basic question in customer conversations: What does buying “sovereign” actually mean?

In Omdia’s view, sovereignty isn’t just data residency, it’s a cloud with four characteristics: data sovereignty, technical sovereignty, contractual sovereignty and operational sovereignty, each carrying its own set of requirements and proof points. 

In practice, that means selling sovereign cloud — whether from AWS, Nutanix, IBM, SAP or others — isn’t about promising “compliance” in a general sense. It’s about mapping customer requirements to specific vendor constructs, then documenting and operating them in a way that survives security reviews, internal audits and regulatory scrutiny.

This matters because most customers won’t stop at a single sovereign option. They’ll mix environments — precisely the scenario Nutanix is targeting. Organizations will keep some workloads in-country or on-premises. They’ll try to align governance and operations across multiple platforms. And they’ll quickly discover that sovereignty is as much about day-two operations as it is about initial deployment.

That’s where a lot of partner services revenue lives, and where a lot of deals could get stuck if customers can’t prove, explain or operate what they’re buying. 

Channel strategy

Over the next 12-18 months, here’s what managed service providers, system integrators, consultancies and other channel partners might want to do:

• Stop treating sovereign cloud as a “region choice” conversation. Use Omdia’s four-part model — data, technical, contractual, operational — as a discovery framework and a way to structure deliverables. 
• Build a repeatable template. Customers will need help converting regulatory and risk requirements into concrete architectures with evidence they can show to auditors and regulators.
• Prepare for sovereignty to collide with AI. Omdia links sovereign cloud and sovereign AI, noting that 2026 and 2027 will be pivotal, raising questions around intellectual property and “sovereign generated data."

Ultimately, the winning partners will be the ones who help customers define sovereignty in their terms, implement it across real environments and defend it when the questions get sharp.