In the face of rising geopolitical concerns, economic considerations and tightening regulatory environments, digital sovereignty has become a critical focus for enterprises across the globe. Companies of all sizes are looking to understand and regain control over their data, operations, and technology, whilst ensuring compliance with increasingly complex data protection and privacy laws. As demand for sovereign solutions intensifies, Broadcom’s sovereign VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSP) stand out as a key enabler of customers across the globe achieving data, operational, and technological sovereignty.
The rise of digital sovereignty
Gartner in their latest research recommends to, “Determine which of the three Gartner-identified principles of digital sovereignty — data sovereignty, operational sovereignty and technological sovereignty — you need to target, and use your priority requirements to select the most suitable digital sovereignty solutions. Note that you may need to engage multiple vendors to achieve all three objectives.”
As per Gartner, “The three core principles of digital sovereignty are:
- Data sovereignty includes all aspects of information management that are subject to the rules of its originating jurisdiction, regardless of where data is actually located.
- Operational sovereignty is the degree to which a customer organization has visibility into and control over the provider’s operations.
- Technological sovereignty is the degree to which a customer organization can ensure the continuity of and control over its right to technological autonomy. It includes the ability to operate disconnected from a technology provider.”
Broadcom’s sovereign attestation within the VMware Cloud Service Provider program aligns seamlessly with Gartner’s Digital Sovereignty principles, providing solutions that give organizations greater control, security, and flexibility while ensuring compliance with local regulations. By leveraging VMware’s private and hybrid cloud platforms, organizations can create environments that meet the highest standards of data and operational sovereignty. As the Gartner diagram below shows, sovereign clouds provide the best in class scalability, agility, reliance, security and innovation in a disconnected model.
Source: Gartner, “Market Guide for Digital Sovereignty Solutions.” Dennis Smith, Rene Buest, Alessandro Galimberti, May 2025. Used with permission
Data Sovereignty with Broadcom’s sovereign VMware cloud
Sovereign cloud platforms like VMware Cloud Foundation from a sovereign cloud provider like those within the VMware Cloud Service Provider program empower organizations to manage their data in compliance with regulations, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), EU Data Act, and regional country level extensions supported by in region providers. By offering features such as flexibility in data residency and storage, flexibility in architectural and operational control, and many others, VMware provides partners the tools to ensure that their customer data remains within a specific jurisdiction, giving organizations confidence that their data is not subject to extraterritorial laws.
The VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud platform, combined with Broadcom’s partner ecosystem, allows for strict data access control, identity management, and encryption capabilities. Whilst Broadcom is a U.S. company the software itself can be run in total isolation, with no connection to Broadcom and hence is very well placed to meet data sovereignty requirements. VCF supports enabling customers to manage their own encryption keys, Broadcom ensures that organizations maintain exclusive control over their sensitive data. This model protects enterprises from unauthorized access, ensuring compliance with the most stringent privacy laws globally.
Operational Sovereignty and Broadcom localized cloud infrastructure
Broadcom sovereign cloud solutions are designed to provide enterprises the tools to set up full unchallenged (and non-foreign jurisdiction controlled) visibility into and control over their operations. Broadcom’s ecosystem fosters collaboration with regional Broadcom VMware Cloud Service Provider partners, ensuring that operations are managed by trusted personnel who comply with local regulations. This capability addresses not only jurisdictional concerns but in addition supply chain risk management requirements of laws like DORA and NIS2.
Additionally, Broadcom enables compliance with key national and regional industry standards, which can be delivered by the sovereign cloud provider who have tailored solutions to those standards, further strengthening the operational sovereignty of its cloud environments. Therefore, Broadcom customers have the option to set up sovereign solutions from VCSP partners that ensure their cloud operations are managed by highly skilled resident local staff, often security cleared for sensitive data, ensuring operational continuity while adhering to local data protection and privacy requirements.
Source: Gartner, “Market Guide for Digital Sovereignty Solutions.” Dennis Smith, Rene Buest, Alessandro Galimberti, May 2025. Used with permission
Technological Sovereignty ensuring long-term autonomy
Technological sovereignty is becoming an essential consideration for enterprises that seek to minimize reliance on foreign providers for their critical IT infrastructure. Broadcom’s sovereign cloud program enables customers to gain control over their technology deployments, ensuring that they can continue operations even in the event of geopolitical disruptions. Broadcom’s software, being independent of Broadcom for operation (i.e. is not SaaS), is managed and run by local sovereign cloud providers, with no connection to Broadcom for updates, patching or monitoring it can be run indefinitely. Metering information is supplied to Broadcom, so that the Cloud Service Provider can be charged for their consumption, however, Broadcom does permit ‘dark sites’ for sovereign cloud providers where there is zero connection to the outside world.
Broadcom’s solutions support private cloud in a cloud provider, on-premises at the operational environment of the end-customer, in Broadcom’s VMware hyperscale solutions and therefore hybrid cloud models, with a common operational model across all, allowing customers to operate in a fully isolated or air-gapped environment if necessary. Broadcom’s partners also offer semi-disconnected and fully disconnected models, which ensure that organizations can continue to operate securely without external dependencies. This level of control allows organizations to align with long-term strategic goals, safeguarding technological autonomy, changes and protecting against external risks.
Broadcom’s partnerships play a vital role in delivering these solutions. By collaborating with trusted local and regional sovereign cloud service provider partners, Broadcom enables customers to implement the necessary controls and monitoring capabilities to achieve both operational and technological sovereignty. Broadcom’s sovereign cloud ecosystem allows organizations to leverage the strengths of local expertise while benefiting from VMware’s robust VCF cloud infrastructure.
Broadcom’s partnerships are designed to provide greater flexibility and autonomy. Enterprises can choose from a variety of deployment models, ranging from fully sovereign solutions hosted on private infrastructure to hybrid models that integrate with VMware-based hyperscale platforms. This flexibility ensures that organizations can tailor their cloud environments to meet their specific digital sovereignty requirements, with the support of Broadcom’s Cloud Service Provider partner network.
Conclusion
In an era of heightened regulatory scrutiny, complex economic considerations and geopolitical risks, Broadcom’s sovereign cloud partner program offers a comprehensive solution for organizations seeking to regain control over their digital estates. By aligning with the principles of data, operational, and technological sovereignty, Broadcom empowers customers to ensure compliance, secure their data, and maintain long-term autonomy over their cloud environments. Broadcom’s strategic sovereign cloud partnerships further amplify the value of these offerings, providing a robust ecosystem of trusted sovereign providers that can help organizations meet the complex demands of digital sovereignty.
In this rapidly evolving landscape, Broadcom’s cloud partner program, and sovereign cloud service providers stand as a strategic enabler of resilience, compliance, and long-term business success.
Gartner, Market Guide for Digital Sovereignty Solutions, Dennis Smith, Rene Buest, et al., 5 May 2025 (Accessible to Gartner clients only)
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
