Our Take: At VMware Explore Europe, the vendor bet big on sovereign cloud

The vendor talked extensively about the topic at its VMware Explore event, which CRN attended

Now the excitement has calmed from the conclusion of VMware's Explore Europe 2022 event last week, CRN reflects on what emerged as a stand-out talking point from the global conference.

On the ground, the phrase 'sovereign cloud' cropped up in just about every panel discussion and keynote speech CRN attended, making it clear VMware is focused squarely on the trend.

The vendor's CEO Raghu Raghuram, naturally, was the first among many execs to delve into the subject by announcing VMware's latest batch of 'sovereign cloud‑ready' solutions.

VMware Sovereign Cloud providers

VMware defines the term sovereign cloud as cloud architectures that meet strict requirements of regulated data privacy access and control, according to local jurisdiction laws.

As CRN's EMEA sister site CPI has reported for years, the issues around data privacy is one that greatly animates partners in Europe, especially in Germany and France.

For instance, in 2020, France-HQ hyperscaler OVHcloud was a co-founder of a new platform - Gaia-X - a European business and government effort to challenge AWS, Azure and GCP's hegemony.

At the time, its CEO Michel Paulin told CPIconcerns over sovereign cloud were top of mind behind the project's launch.

At VMware's conference last week, CEO Raghuram claimed the number of its new VMware Sovereign Cloud Providers has more than doubled to 25 partners globally.

Also announced was the availability of VMware Tanzu on sovereign cloud, VMware Aria Operations Compliance pack for sovereign clouds, as well as new open ecosystem solutions.

These new sovereign SaaS innovations aim to enable partners to deliver services equivalent to those found in public clouds, while also better assuring data is protected, compliant, and resident within national territories.

The VMware Sovereign Cloud Framework, which makes up the VMware Sovereign Cloud Initiative, is aligned with Gaia-X, and other global data sovereignty regulations to further simplify the delivery of sovereign clouds.

Raghuram stressed the dilemma organisations find themselves in regarding the issue of data coming under their sovereign control.

"And especially, if within your country, you are in one of the industries that has been critical to national infrastructure. This has become an acute, acute challenge that you all have to solve.

"The VMware sovereign cloud initiative addresses this issue and is a set of software controls overlaid on top of the standard VMware infrastructure and platform standards to deliver sovereign security, compliance, control, autonomy and allow you to innovate on such a platform.

"This is one of the areas where we have a responsibility to get it right," he asserted.

[Keep reading to hear VMware's head of sovereign cloud EMEA and GM of cloud providers solutions chat about pricing and sovereign cloud in the US… ]

Our Take: At VMware Explore Europe, the vendor bet big on sovereign cloud

The vendor talked extensively about the topic at its VMware Explore event, which CRN attended

‘Sovereign cloud is about data protection'

Picking up where his CEO left off, Laurent Allard, VMware's head of Sovereign Cloud EMEA, outlined what the subject at hand is all about.

"Sovereign cloud is about data protection, securities and compliance. It's about residency, it's about intel ability and portability," he told a panel audience.

Allard explained the reason the sovereign cloud is the topic of the hour is thanks to the huge acceleration of digital transformation that is now in the cloud.

He added innovation is an amazing agenda for a lot of VMware's clients, which goes hand in hand with the cloud.

However, this needs to be done "in a secure way", he warned.

"If you look at the sovereign cloud for most of our clients, it's still unclear. It's complex, they don't have the skills.

"But if you don't make it simple and efficient, we can say it's a choice, and you need to choose what it is for your different amount of data."

"Because someone can't establish a one size fits all," Allard said.

"You have very confidential data, you have a medium level of confidentiality and a low level of confidentiality, so you need to make a choice.

"You need to make a choice when it comes to residence, we need to control that you are totally aligned on the regulation with compliance."

‘There is no standard for sovereign clouds'

Highlighting some key takeaways from VMware's first Sovereign Cloud Summit, Rajeev Bhardwaj, GM of Cloud Providers Solutions shared with the audience some recurring customer and partner worries.

"The key takeaways for us was, when it comes to sovereignty, it's more than just data privacy and security," he said.

"What customers are concerned about are this changing geopolitical landscape and making sure customers still have access to data."

He went on to say how Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has also played a hand in bringing sovereignty to the forefront.
"The second point we heard was around jurisdiction controls.

"This is around foreign nations having access to data using the legal framework. That came up as another key concern for customers.

"And the third one was around highly sensitive data.

"Customers have embraced cloud. A lot of these regulated workloads now sit in public clouds so there's concern if the foreign nations can access the data or if the geopolitical landscape changes, I may not have access to data, so that came up as a big takeaway."

However, Bhardwaj made note of two more sovereign cloud concerns that had not yet been brought up at VMware Explore - the lack of standardisation and industry cooperation.

"Another thing that came up was, there is no standard for sovereign clouds.

"The questions customers are asking is what is the right way to approach? What stack to deploy?

"And finally, the whole industry, the ecosystem has to come together. It's the infrastructure and the software, the ISVs, the policies, everybody has to come together to deliver sovereignty."

[Click to the final page to read about sovereign cloud in the US and Europe…]

Our Take: At VMware Explore Europe, the vendor bet big on sovereign cloud

The vendor talked extensively about the topic at its VMware Explore event, which CRN attended

During a panel discussion, Bhardwaj tackled the question of what does the US think of the sovereign cloud, which he answered by echoing his colleague's earlier sentiments.

"When you look at sovereign clouds there is no one size that fits all," he said.

"And that came up also is a question that customers need to classify data.

"So if I'm working in a regulated industry, if I'm working in a highly secure environment, I need to classify data.

"So data that's highly secure, highly sensitive, for them that's a sovereign bucket. Data that's less secure or that may not be sovereign, that falls in a different bucket.

"I think the question is an important one in terms of jurisdiction control on the data. And that's where we see the US cloud coming up and that becomes a challenge for sovereign nations especially in Europe and Asia."

Staying on the EMEA region, VMware's GM of Cloud Providers Solutions also braved the topical question of price rises given European economic uncertainty.

"Customers have to choose between sovereignty and innovation, and does sovereignty drive more cost?

"Customers and partners have existing stacks that they offer in the market. And from that perspective, there is no increase in costs.

"What we also heard is there is an additional cost sometimes when it comes to regulations and that may add an additional cost but from a pure infrastructure perspective, it's the same stack they will operationalize today and the same stack they will operationalise tomorrow.

"That's the consistent offering."