Across Europe, cloud sovereignty has shifted from a policy discussion and an aspirational goalpost to an operational requirement. A combination of regulatory change, geopolitical uncertainty and growing scrutiny around data governance has accelerated the shift. Regulations such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into force in January 2025, and Network and Information Systems Directive 2 (NIS2), are realising expectations around operational resilience, risk management and third-party oversight. At the same time, organisations are paying closer attention to how their data, workloads and support functions are governed across jurisdictions.
For businesses running critical applications in sectors such as financial services, healthcare and the public sector, infrastructure decisions increasingly hinge on who controls and operates the environment, what jurisdiction is applicable and who is accountable when issues arise.
This is where the partnership between IONOS and Broadcom comes in, to provide a sovereign home for European VMware estates.
Responding to Evolving Customer Needs
IONOS has evolved to provide organisations with the digital sovereignty and the freedom they need to grow. Today, more than six million customers across its cloud and web-presence businesses rely on IONOS services, while the company continues to invest in sovereign cloud infrastructure and managed environments that rely on VMware technology.
Increasingly, cloud decisions are influenced by compliance obligations, board-level risk considerations and long-term operational resilience requirements. Customers want the secure, scaleable, reliable, resilient, enterprise-grade VMware infrastructure but they also want the assurance that comes from European ownership, European jurisdiction and European governance.
Just as importantly, they want stability. In a period of significant change, organisations are looking for predictable commercial models, dedicated support and clear accountability.
A Partnership Built on Continuity and Control
As a go-forward VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP), customers are assured of long-term operational continuity, reduced migration risk and greater planning security as they evaluate the future of their VMware estates.
The partnership itself spans more than 15 years, bringing together deep VMware expertise and local investment, together with infrastructure operated under European ownership and jurisdiction. Through managed VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) services, organisations can continue running business-critical workloads on a mature enterprise platform while maintaining control over where and how these services are delivered.
The value extends beyond infrastructure. As organisations navigate DORA requirements and third-party risk assessments such as Germany’s BSI C5 framework, many are looking to simplify accountability. Rather than managing separate relationships for licensing, infrastructure and operations, customers benefit from a single, contractually accountable European provider.
That clarity is becoming increasingly important in regulated industries where operational resilience and supplier oversight are strategic priorities.
The Importance of Accessible Support
When sovereignty is discussed, attention often focuses on data residency and compliance. Those factors are important but they are only part of the picture.
One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we hear from customers after migration is the value of accessible support and local expertise.
For organisations operating critical environments, knowing ‘the door is always open’ and that they have a human account manager they can call on for support can be just as important as where infrastructure resides. Having European-based support teams operating under the same jurisdiction can make a meaningful difference when rapid action is required. It also avoids questions about data flows and extra-jurisdictional access to data as all customer workloads remain in the European territory.
This is particularly relevant for organisations delivering essential services. A German operator of critical infrastructure migrating its VMware estate to managed VCF requires a resilient and secure cloud platform capable of supporting critical operations while maintaining strong governance standards. It is a good example of how sovereignty requirements increasingly extend beyond compliance and into day-to-day operational assurance building on the presence of local expertise and the existence of a strong industrial base.
In practice, customers want to know that someone is accountable. As many tell us, the ability to pick up the phone and speak directly to a trusted partner matters just as much as where the infrastructure resides.
Modernisation Without Disruption
A common misconception is that achieving sovereignty requires organisations to rebuild applications or redesign architectures from scratch.
For many businesses, that simply is not necessary. IONOS focuses on meeting customers where they are. For organisations with healthy VMware estates, that often means migrating existing workloads onto managed VCF environments with minimal disruption. Customers can choose self-service, co-managed or fully managed operating models depending on their requirements, while hybrid architectures and hyperscaler interconnects remain fully supported.
This allows organisations to modernise incrementally, in a way that suits them and risk manage the different workloads based on data sensitivity and other requirements. With sovereign AI capabilities emerging as the next major area of demand, customers are asking who controls that infrastructure? IONOS recognises that sovereignty is expanding from cloud infrastructure into the broader AI stack and is therefore driving investment in GPU infrastructure and AI-ready environments operated under European jurisdiction.
Turning Sovereignty Into Reality
The European cloud conversation has evolved. The focus is now on how organisations operationalise sovereignty while maintaining performance, flexibility and innovation.
For organisations reassessing VMware estates, navigating regulatory change or preparing for the next wave of AI adoption, the challenge is finding partners that can balance those priorities while remaining accountable throughout the journey.
Through a combination of enterprise-grade VMware capabilities, European governance and highly accessible operational control, the IONOS-Broadcom partnership provides a foundation where sovereignty, accountability and innovation can thrive together.
