Your emails run through American servers. Your files are stored with a Californian tech giant. Your work tools depend on companies subject to foreign laws. What if it all stopped tomorrow? Digital sovereignty is no longer a debate reserved for experts. In 2026, it’s an issue that concerns every European business.
Digital sovereignty: a simple definition
Digital sovereignty is the ability of a country, an organisation or a company to maintain control over its data, its infrastructure and its digital tools. In practical terms, it means knowing where your data is stored, who can access it, which laws govern it, and above all: do you really have the final say?
Today, the answer is often no. The majority of European businesses use cloud services, collaborative software and management tools provided by American companies. Microsoft 365 for emails, AWS or Azure for hosting, Google for analytics, Salesforce for CRM. The list is long and spans every business function.
This is not a problem in itself: these tools are powerful and have helped millions of businesses accelerate their digital transformation. The problem is what this concentration implies on a legal and strategic level. Because when your data passes through or is stored with a foreign provider, it is subject to the laws of that provider’s home country. Not yours. This is precisely the observation that led to the creation of iD4Connect, and it is the central thread of this article.
Why has this become a burning issue in 2026?
A few years ago, digital sovereignty looked like a niche debate. Not anymore. Several factors have tipped the subject into urgency.
The numbers first. According to the Cigref, 83% of European cloud and software spending goes to American players, roughly 264 billion euros per year (source: Roboto / Cigref). In France, 70% of data is hosted on non-European clouds (source: Institut Montaigne). And in Germany, a Bitkom survey reveals that 96% of businesses would not survive more than two years if the United States cut off its technology exports to Europe (source: France 24).
These figures are not theoretical. They reflect a structural dependency, built over twenty years of massive adoption of GAFAM solutions, often for good reasons: simplicity, cost, performance. But dependency comes at a price.
An unprecedented legal conflict between the US and Europe
The American Cloud Act, adopted in 2018, allows US authorities to access data hosted by American companies, even when that data is physically located in Europe (source: InCyber). This law directly contradicts the GDPR, which requires companies to protect the personal data of European citizens.
In other words: your files may sit in a data centre in Paris or Frankfurt, but if the provider is an American company, they remain subject to US jurisdiction. The geographical location of the server is not enough. It is the provider’s nationality that matters. This is one of the reasons why European players such as iD4Connect choose architectures where data is never stored: what exists nowhere cannot be seized anywhere.
Since September 2025, the European Data Act has strengthened the EU’s position by requiring cloud providers to implement technical measures to prevent any illegal access by foreign governments (source: Kiteworks). Meanwhile, Brussels launched a formal investigation into AWS, Azure and Google Cloud under the Digital Markets Act in late 2025 (source: CTOL Digital Solutions). The showdown is underway.
A geopolitical context that accelerates everything
Trade tensions between the United States and Europe, threats of retaliation over aggressive GAFAM regulation, and the rise of AI have changed the game. As French Digital Minister Clara Chappaz puts it: “there is no AI without cloud.” And sovereign AI means sovereign cloud (source: Banque des Territoires).
In January 2026, the French National Assembly voted to create a parliamentary inquiry committee on France’s digital dependencies (source: Roboto). The issue is no longer confined to CIOs: it has become political.
Key figures on European dependency
83% of European cloud and software spending goes to American players: 264 billion euros per year. (Cigref)
70% of French data is hosted on non-European clouds. (Institut Montaigne)
96% of German businesses would not survive two years without American technologies. (Bitkom / France 24)
The European sovereign cloud market is worth 12.4 billion euros in 2026, growing at 34%. (Markess / Tech Insider)
What paths forward to regain control ?
The good news is that European alternatives exist and are growing stronger every year. The European sovereign cloud market now exceeds 12 billion euros and is growing at over 30% annually (source: Tech Insider / Markess). First option: choose hosting providers and cloud vendors subject exclusively to European law. The ANSSI’s SecNumCloud certification is a reliable benchmark.
But beyond the choice of hosting provider, it is the very architecture of data processing that deserves rethinking. The traditional logic of “store everything, centralise everything” multiplies exposure surfaces. A different approach consists of processing data in transit, without intermediate storage, without duplication. This is the principle behind iD4Connect’s DataCell technology: each processing unit acts on the data during transit, then releases it. Nothing persists, nothing accumulates. Everything is deployed within the client’s own infrastructure (see the architecture).
This paradigm shift from data “at rest” to data “in motion” is probably one of the most structurally sound responses to sovereignty challenges. And it has the advantage of integrating with existing infrastructure without breaking anything.