As geopolitical tensions reshape the global technology landscape, IT Service Management (ITSM) faces a fundamental transformation driven by sovereignty concerns and regional control over digital infrastructure. The 2024 Draghi Report highlights how dependency on foreign technologies creates financial, operational, and strategic vulnerabilities that organizations can no longer ignore. By 2026, tech sovereignty has become a central discussion point at forums like Davos, forcing service management professionals to rethink foundational approaches.
Sovereignty-first ITSM means maintaining full control over your data, systems, and technological decisions while preserving ITIL alignment. You need to evaluate three critical questions: What control levels do you maintain? Can you switch providers without disruption? Who holds ultimate responsibility for your infrastructure? Digital sovereignty enables you to enforce decisions about data location, workload placement, and provider selection within your operational constraints. Cloud-native data transformation and workflow tools help enforce consistent policies across environments.
Sovereignty-first ITSM demands answering three critical questions: What do you control? Can you switch providers seamlessly? Who owns ultimate infrastructure responsibility?
Europe leads this shift through concrete initiatives. T Cloud launched in September 2025 with a multi-cloud philosophy offering varying sovereignty levels. The Industrial AI Cloud collaboration between Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems, NVIDIA, and SAP represents Europe’s 2025 moonshot for sovereign computing. These platforms guarantee data residency in European jurisdictions, GDPR compliance, zero-trust security, and European SOC monitoring.
Before making architecture decisions, you must identify business-critical data, map existing dependencies, and understand regulatory horizons. Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies address data location requirements while maintaining flexibility. Standardized interfaces and portable technologies enable provider switches without major system overhauls, building resilience into your infrastructure. Shared responsibility models increase reliance on providers to fulfill security and confidentiality obligations.
Large enterprises lead ITSM adoption in 2026, requiring advanced features for complex ecosystems. The global top five ITSM players hold 35-40% revenue share through AI integration and automation capabilities. Europe’s data sovereignty requirements and GDPR regulations drive demand for locally hosted solutions, creating distinct regional market dynamics. Highly regulated sectors including Healthcare, Finance, and Legal increasingly require sovereignty guarantees to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.
The challenge balances proprietary offerings’ value against accepted dependencies. You must translate executive sovereignty goals into operational choices—contract terms, architecture patterns, exit strategies. Governance mechanisms enforce sovereignty requirements across sectors, ensuring compliance isn’t just policy but practice. Cloud-based deployments gain momentum for scalability, while AI-driven automation redefines efficiency through predictive service analytics that respect sovereignty boundaries.
