INTERVIEW Sovereignty remains a hot topic in the tech industry, but interpretations of what it actually means – and how much it matters – vary widely between organizations and sectors. While public bodies are often driven by regulation and national policy, the private sector tends to take a more pragmatic, cost-focused view.

That tension has pushed cloud and virtualization platforms that position themselves as alternatives to US hyperscalers into sharper focus. One such company is OpenNebula Systems, a developer of a cloud and virtualization management platform designed to run across a wide range of infrastructures, from on-premises environments to public clouds including Amazon Web Services and European providers like Scaleway.

Founded in 2010, OpenNebula Systems will turn 16 in 2026, but recent geopolitical shifts and regulatory pressure have pulled it squarely into debates around cloud sovereignty – particularly in Europe, where questions of control, jurisdiction, and vendor dependence have become increasingly urgent.

The Register spoke with managing director Ignacio M. Llorente about how definitions of sovereignty differ between the private and public sectors, and why demand for "sovereign" cloud solutions is rising – even among organizations that have traditionally prioritized cost and convenience over control.

With regard to the pragmatic approach historically taken by the private sector, Llorente says: "They are more cost-driven, they don't consider sovereignty as a key thing... it's more about 'this is my RFP, you have to fulfill these requirements.'" One of those requirements could increasingly be a sovereign solution.

"But if you go into the public [sector]," he says, "it is completely different. For example, they are giving priority for defense. They are giving priority to sovereignty.

"And they say, 'OK, that's good. We have to start comparing solutions. But my first step, I'm going to keep only those solutions that are sovereign.'"

Which brings us to what "sovereign" means. "I think one of the problems we have right now," says Llorente, "is that there is not a common definition for sovereignty."

Differing definitions don't occur only company by company, but also at the geographical level. "It's in the EU, it is open," he says. "In other cases, it's not." He cites the example of the US. "We have customers in the US, and they discuss sovereignty. In the US, the sovereignty concept is more about on-prem and open source. It's about a sovereignty that I [the customer] can control.

"You go to the EU... 'OK, this is the thing, plus technology that is developed in the EU.'"

Calls for EU firms to move away from US hyperscalers and opt for an EU-native approach continue to increase in volume and are also the subject of regulations. While businesses will lean toward what makes the most sense from a bottom-line perspective, many are increasingly thinking local when it comes to cloud computing.

Having noted the pragmatic nature of business, Llorente echoes sentiments expressed by Nextcloud and the UK cloud provider CIVO. "We have been receiving an exponential number of requests," he says, before cautioning: "This will take three, four, five years because of the multi-year term of the subscription licenses in different companies."

Llorente reckons that, given the geopolitical environment, interest will accelerate further. "Probably, in 2027, we'll have the peak."

Of OpenNebula Systems's definition, he says: "Ours is not only about where the servers are located. Sovereignty is about who controls the platform, who owns the technology stack, who can make decisions about the infrastructure, and even who controls the energy."

In a January blog post, Llorente said 2025 had been a year "shaped by major market shifts" and "rapid adoption." Having an open, sovereign, enterprise-ready virtualization and cloud platform hasn't hurt when it comes to scooping up customers looking for an alternative to VMware, as well as organizations looking for something a little more vendor-neutral.

Most recently, OpenNebula Systems' platform became available on OVHcloud as production-ready environments. Other companies, such as SUSE, are also banging the sovereignty drum with increasing volume, recently launching a tool to assess how an organization stands against the objectives defined by the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework.

Llorente says he is frequently asked to recommend platforms. For entities eyeing EU regulations, SUSE (which operates out of Germany) may be attractive.

"If you go to the public cloud, the priority for the European Commission is to reduce the dependence on a small number of foreign platforms. If you go private, the big issue is the VMware acquisition by Broadcom."

An open solution that addresses a potential sudden increase in licensing costs resulting from the acquisition could also be a sovereign one.

"In private cloud, it's mostly driven by VMware's acquisition by Broadcom," says Llorente. "They have one year to manage the migration, and they are now starting to evaluate different alternatives, and they don't want to make the same mistake... they want to adopt something that is open."

The pragmatism of the private sector should not be overlooked in debates about sovereignty. It could be that Broadcom's antics have as much effect on how an organization deals with its cloud needs as the reaction to other antics in certain political offices. ®