Organizations Pivot to 'Resilient Interdependence' Over Total Tech Sovereignty

While governments and vendors have long advocated for digital sovereignty, a majority of large organizations now view complete technological independence as an unattainable goal, as The Register first reported. According to research from Capgemini, 59 percent of organizations consider full digital sovereignty unrealistic.

Instead of total independence, two-thirds of those surveyed have adopted a strategy Capgemini calls "resilient interdependence." This approach involves accepting a continued reliance on external technology providers while attempting to ensure those dependencies do not jeopardize critical operations. This shift is particularly evident among European respondents, 75 percent of whom define sovereignty through this lens, compared to 50 percent of respondents in the US. In the UK, 56 percent of respondents associate sovereignty primarily with risk mitigation and resilience.

The difficulty in decoupling is highlighted by Capgemini's Digital Sovereignty Index, which analyzed 866 organizations and found that 86 percent have significant exposure to externally controlled or foreign supply chains. Visibility remains a major hurdle, as only 14 percent of organizations reported end-to-end visibility into their technology ecosystem dependencies.

For those attempting to pivot, the process is slow. The Register reports that 36 percent of organizations stated moving away from a critical provider would take over a year, while 10 percent said they have no viable alternative available. Despite these hurdles, the issue remains a corporate priority; 93 percent of respondents said digital sovereignty has been discussed at the board level, and 44 percent rank it as a top priority. AI has emerged as a primary concern, with 75 percent of organizations identifying it as a key focus of their sovereignty efforts, surpassing concerns over software, data, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure.