As AI spending surges, enterprises are rethinking cloud strategies with data sovereignty and security top of mind. A shift away from single-vendor dependencies to hybrid environments that incorporate on-premises private cloud capabilities has created an opening for partners to provide much needed technical guidance and support, according to a recent SUSE report.
That trend expands the channel partner role beyond implementation to strategically rethinking how AI infrastructure is designed, governed and controlled, Hayley Wienszczak, head of global partner programs and success at SUSE, said in an interview. The open-source software company believes channel partners can be “architects of choice,” helping enterprises navigate the tension between growing pressure to move forward with AI plans and the risks of vendor lock-in, she told Channel Dive.
Enterprises have prioritized AI in their budgets despite infrastructure readiness gaps, SUSE found, in its inaugural Cloud and AI Pulse Survey of nearly 600 IT leaders in the U.S., UK, Japan, India and Germany. More than one-third of respondents characterized AI implementation as a major challenge and another 24% said it was a critical challenge.
Globally, respondents characterized AI as a critical technology and a major challenge — an alignment Wienszczak calls the AI urgency gap. The tension between aspirations and capabilities is even more pronounced in the United States, SUSE found.
“This tells us that while the money is there, the execution is difficult,” Wienszczak said.
Sovereignty and control
Control over AI models and the data they consume rests on foundational infrastructure and architecture decisions that could be overlooked in the rush to the cloud. In the U.S. particularly, “digital sovereignty has moved from a conceptual talking point into a core technical priority,” Wienszczak said
Nearly one-third of U.S. enterprise leaders ranked digital sovereignty as a top priority for this year, SUSE research found. AI is driving the urgency.
“U.S. organizations are increasingly viewing sovereignty through the lens of AI model training data, ensuring they have full control over the information fueling their competitive advantages,” she said.
A digital sovereignty push is well underway. Nearly 3 in 5 organizations have adopted hybrid cloud strategies to balance performance with governance and control. Another 16% of respondents said their organization had private cloud deployed, the research found.
Enterprises are also aiming to steer clear of single-vendor overreliance as they build flexibility into their infrastructure strategies.
More than one-third of U.S. enterprises expressed concern about reducing vendor dependency, compared with a global average of 25%.
Enterprises have “significant anxiety” about vendor lock-in, according to Wienszczak.
“This is a massive driver in the U.S. market,” she said.
Organizations in the U.S. also placed a higher premium on security than global peers. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. respondents cited resilience as their top technological priority compared to 55% globally, while 53% identified enhanced security as a primary concern.
“This wariness is compounded by rising system complexity and risk exposure associated with AI, which has led leaders to prioritize governed deployments over a speed-at-any-cost mentality.” Wienszczak said.
As strategies shift, sovereignty no longer refers strictly to data — it encompasses freedom and control across the stack. Digital sovereignty means “having vertical choice throughout the infrastructure stack, from the OS and Kubernetes to observability and security, as well as flexible deployment methods, whether that is public cloud, private AI factories or edge hardware,” Wienszczak said.
“This ‘sovereign approach’ serves as a primary defense against the risk of external ‘kill switches’ and platform dependency,” she added.
Nearly 3 in 5 organizations globally have placed sovereignty-related workloads in hybrid clouds. More than half plan to widen their multi-cloud strategies and 46% are increasing investment in open source, according to the report.
The channel role
For partners, the opportunity sits squarely in closing the gap between AI ambition and infrastructure reality, positioning them in ongoing advisory rather than one-time deployment roles.
Channel firms can lead by delivering “jurisdictional certainty” through managed services on secure, air-gapped stacks that meet strict data residency requirements, Wienszczak said.
Specific strategies vary by partner type, according to Wienszczak.
- System integrators “should focus on ‘operational autonomy,’ using open source to build zero-trust environments that allow customers to move workloads freely without being tied to a single vendor,” Wienszczak said.
- Value added resellers, in Wienszczak’s view, “have a unique opportunity to act as ‘sovereignty advocates’ who bridge the gap between complex legal mandates and technical infrastructure, effectively reducing the risk of non-compliance.”
- Independent software vendors “should prioritize ‘secure by design’ software delivery, utilizing a full software bill of materials to ensure every application component is auditable and immune to external interference,” Wienszczak said.
With 59% of organizations already prioritizing hybrid cloud for sovereign workloads, partners can bring talent and expertise to the table.
“The takeaway is clear,” Wienszczak said. “The future of AI isn't just in the cloud — it's in the controlled cloud.”
