Digital sovereignty is now impossible to ignore

Bill Doerrfeld | August 20, 2025

My latest feature for CIO.com dives into how global CIOs are responding to digital sovereignty pressures


The cloud is no longer borderless. Rising regional data laws and sovereign cloud mandates are forcing CIOs to act.


In my latest for CIO Online, I spoke with global CIOs and analysts about how they're responding. Digital sovereignty is now "impossible to ignore."


How CIOs are adapting: 


- More data audits

- Repatriating workloads

- Investing in localized or self-architected infrastructure

- Strengthening access control

- Reevaluating partnerships, and more... 


It's not flashy work — but it's necessary to stay compliant and resilient.


Others argue this is largely the cloud provider's problem to solve.


We're in a post-globalization, pro-governance era. It's a challenging macro topic to cover as a journalist, but I think the implications for the data economy are only beginning to unfold.


Check out my full article on CIO for some actionable takes on this evolving area. 


Read: Why CIOs need to respond to digital sovereignty now
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