Digital sovereignty goes far beyond data protection and IT security. Europe’s digital future currently depends on a small number of global tech providers, bringing risks such as vendor lock-in and geopolitical exposure.
For platform engineering teams, these concerns quickly become practical decisions. Which workloads can run on which platforms? Which dependencies are acceptable? And how meaningful is sovereignty once you move past marketing claims?
This talk examines what digital sovereignty means in real-world platform engineering. It covers the key challenges, the trade-offs teams must navigate, and how organizations can build viable strategies. Drawing on hands-on project experience, it outlines pragmatic approaches to balancing technological capability with independence and compliance.
Michael Harrer is Co-Head of the Cloud Sovereignty and Compliance business unit at MaibornWolff. He previously led the DevOps and Cloud Native department for several years.
As a Principal Architect, he focuses on designing cloud platforms that combine technical excellence with responsibility and independence. His work helps organizations translate multi-cloud, data sovereignty, and compliance requirements into sustainable platform strategies.
