Data sovereignty concerns are on the rise, but adopting VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCFaaS) offers a way to ensure data remains secure within national borders.
With the current state of geopolitics, the concept of data sovereignty has become increasingly critical. Today it is imperative to ensure that data is subject to the laws and governance of the nation where it is collected. This is critical for legal compliance, security, and reducing foreign jurisdictional control.
From a regulatory compliance perspective, sovereignty addresses strict data protection laws like GDPR. Then, from the point view of data control and privacy, it ensures that data – including metadata and logs – is not accessible by foreign authorities, thus protecting sensitive, intellectual, or personal information. Finally, when viewed from the outlook of security and risk management, sovereignty protects against, or mitigates, the risks associated with storing critical data on public, foreign-operated platforms.
So, what does data sovereignty have to do with an advanced solution like VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCFaaS)? Pretty much everything, as VCFaaS provides a secure, compliant, and portable cloud platform that ensures data remains secure within national borders, thereby facilitating true data sovereignty.
Since most sovereignty concerns stem from the need for countries to assert their national legal control over data generated within their borders, as well as to protect sensitive information from foreign access, the fact that VCFaaS enables local ownership and operation of cloud infrastructure under national jurisdiction means it mitigates this worry.
In fact, a key acquisition of Routed by the German-based multinational, Evoila – named as one of the 100 global Broadcom partners, following that company’s acquisition of VMWare just over a year ago – means that other former VMware partners can utilise their combined service to maintain control of their own VMware Clouds, while securing their data locality and sovereignty at the same time.
Routed will now be recognised as the African subsidiary for evoila, with this approach enabling the company to address critical data sovereignty and locality concerns that public hyperscale clouds cannot fully resolve.
There are potential legal risks because laws such as the US Cloud Act allow US companies to access data even if hosted locally outside the US, something that can potentially create legal risks for both EU and African customers.
Where VCFaaS differs is that it complies with sovereignty requirements because the assets will be owned jointly by us and the customer or partner. Because these assets are owned or co-owned locally, and operated entirely within local laws, we can mitigate exposure to foreign legal claims.
Moreover, this structure enables compliance with regulations demanding data remain physically and legally local. In other words, VCFaaS addresses critical data sovereignty issues directly by providing localised control and ensuring compliance with local laws – something that hyperscalers simply can’t offer.
Essentially, working with evoila will position youto retain yourdata centre, network, Internet breakout, customers, and overall go-to-market. evoila would provide and manage the compute, VMware licensing plus the support, as well as deliver the deployment, design and support and platform operationsof the backend infrastructure.
Better than the hyperscalers, this will ultimately, provide a co-managed VMware Cloud that is situated in-country, ensures that the majority of the existing assets can still be offered locally, and most crucially, that meets country specific data sovereignty laws.
Customers using VCFaaS avoid risks of foreign government interference or data export, and can, in fact, present sovereignty as a key market differentiator and compliance enabler. While African countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria emphasise data locality and sovereignty as separate but related compliance requirements, VCFaaS ensures assets are owned or co-owned locally, and operated entirely within local laws, thereby mitigating exposure to foreign legal claims.
The VCFaaS offering provided is not just beneficial from an immediate data sovereignty and compliance point of view; it also offers longer-term benefits to clients who choose to adopt it. This is because it assists in future-proofing the organisation by enabling it to more easily adapt to changing data privacy laws and geopolitical shifts. In addition, it enables partnerships with local, specialised providers to manage data according to specific national requirements, and the hybrid flexibility it affords allows for a consistent operational model, whether on-premises or in a sovereign cloud provider environment.
