Data sovereignty is not a new issue for European business.
Since the introduction of GDPR in 2018, organizations have been required to carefully manage how and where personal data is stored, processed and protected.
Additional requirements also apply in different regions and in more highly regulated industries.
Artificial Intelligence and Data Expert at SnapLogic.
The problem is that these requirements are not static, but change over time – sometimes on a more or less predictable schedule, as is the case with the various banking rules arising from the Basel Accords, but sometimes much more suddenly and unexpectedly.
Likewise, in the past, technical roadmaps could be easily defined in advance and required little customization.
The pace of change in technology strategy has steadily accelerated in recent years, both in response to the emergence of new technological capabilities (where AI until 2022?), as well as new commercial models such as the development of SaaS and consumption-based billing.
Living in a VUCA environment
The US Army War College coined the term VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) in 1987 to describe the emerging global environment at the end of the Cold War.
Almost four decades later, 2025 brought with it an intensification of VUCA that is perhaps greater than at any time since then. Geopolitical shifts, new regulations, and rapid technological change are all converging, often occurring faster than organizations can fully adapt.
In this environment business leaders are already storm-proofing their operations, strengthening supply chains and reassessing risks. But THIS cannot be ignored. A strategy is only as strong as the systems that implement it, and if those systems are inflexible or slow to adapt, even the most forward-thinking plan can fall behind.
Companies that build flexibility into their technical foundation are better able to pivot quickly as conditions change, gaining an advantage over peers who remain constrained by inflexible architectures.
Increasing resilience through flexibility
To cope with this increased uncertainty, organizations should focus on maintaining decision-making freedom in their IT strategies. Four principles stand out in particular.
First, maintaining data sovereignty across the full range of delivery options; whether public cloud, private cloud or on-premises solutions is essential.
Each model offers unique advantages and trade-offs. The combination of these approaches ensures that enterprises can quickly adapt as regulations, compliance and operational requirements change.
Second, designing systems with vendor independence in mind helps minimize vendor lock-in and protects the business from the risk if a vendor's offering becomes unavailable or non-compliant. Flexible construction ensures that companies can make changes as needed without major disruption.
Another valuable technique is to use a composable architecture made up of modular components. This allows businesses to integrate new capabilities without undergoing major changes, ensuring that today's technology choices do not limit tomorrow's capabilities.
Finally, prioritizing a quick return on investment is key. Focusing on projects that deliver tangible results quickly reduces the risk of lengthy, costly initiatives becoming obsolete before completion and maintains momentum.
Integration at its heart
In such a volatile environment, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify large-scale, multi-year platform migrations. Instead, sustainability is often achieved through smarter and more flexible integration of existing systems.
Tight integration today not only connects data and workflows, but also provides flexibility for reconfiguration as new systems, applications, or AI capabilities emerge.
The same principle applies to AI. Although ambitious research projects have their place, the greatest near-term value comes from ready-to-deploy use cases that solve real business problems and can deliver measurable benefits.
In times of uncertainty, it is these short-term, meaningful wins that help organizations maintain momentum while preparing for what comes next.
Sovereignty of decisions as a goal
After all, a perfect, immutable technology strategy that is resilient to all regulatory, business, and technological changes is likely not achievable or even necessarily desirable.
Instead of a narrow “digital sovereignty” that risks devolving into digital autarky, the true goal should be decisional sovereignty: the ability to quickly adapt, reconfigure when necessary, and keep pace with an environment that shows no signs of slowing down.
The latest example of this is MCP. Rather than fighting the adoption of AI or trying to force it into narrow channels, this new protocol allows enterprise IT departments to connect existing core systems and data sets to AI systems in a way that is both resilient and manageable.
This is a timely example of how organizations can build on what already exists and enhance it with new capabilities, delivering valuable new capabilities to users and customers.
By combining flexible delivery models, vendor independence, composable architectures, and deep integration, enterprises can reduce risk without closing themselves off from the innovation that drives competitiveness.
In a VUCA-dominated world, the most resilient organizations will not be those that make radical breakthroughs, but those that can pivot quickly when the situation changes again.
We have introduced the best secure file sharing.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel, where we profile the best and brightest minds in today's tech industry. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in participating, find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
