Data Sovereignty in the Age of AI (Part 1): Why Choosing a Cloud Region Is Not a Sovereignty Strategy

Ten industry professionals in storage, backup, and legal fields say data sovereignty is no longer determined by geographic location, but by operational control, legal jurisdiction, and architectural independence. Choosing a cloud region provides data residency, not a sovereignty strategy. Because laws such as the U.S. CLOUD Act can require U.S.-based providers to hand over data stored in Frankfurt or Dublin, regulations including the EU GDPR, China’s Data Security Law, and India’s DPDP Act are diverging rather than converging. This is prompting businesses to adopt a multi-data-plane architecture that combines regional autonomy with global governance.