On the path to digital sovereignty, we often behave like seekers who circle the summit on the map instead of taking the first step. We confuse location with status, data centre postcode with control. Enlightenment does not begin in the temple, but in practice: whoever holds the keys determines who is allowed in.

In reality, we are that user from the old tale: keys.

We are dependent on technology from third countries, especially on hyperscalers from the USA. The federal government in Germany is working with the Bundescloud, but it is also experimenting with the DLOS Cloud, which is run by Microsoft and SAP.

The thing with laws is, that extraterritorial laws such as the US Cloud Act or the Chinese Data Security Law continue to have an effect if providers do business or come from named countries and have to keep access paths open.

What does that all mean? Primarily we need to talk about sovereignty and trust that abstract concepts can become tangible.