The European Commission forecasts that 91% of enterprise workloads will shift to the cloud by 2028, signalling that the continent is prepared to operate at scale. The more compelling topic – the one uniting cloud architects, cybersecurity executives and enterprise buyers at GITEX AI EUROPE in Berlin this year – is not whether enterprises ought to migrate, but how to establish independence, and under what conditions.
GITEX AI EUROPE runs from 30 June to 1 July 2026 at Messe Berlin, drawing over 800 enterprises and startups, 500 investors and 120 speakers from more than 100 countries – making it one of the most internationally diverse tech gatherings held in Berlin to date.
The event is organised by inD, the global organisers behind GITEX – one of the world’s largest technology and AI exhibitions. It receives backing from the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, alongside Berlin Partner for Business and Technology. The timing is pivotal for Europe’s digital infrastructure goals, with sovereignty sitting firmly at the heart of both business discussions and policy debates.
Control, not just location
A widespread misunderstanding is that keeping data on a European server automatically places it under European legal protection. Dr. Andreas Nauerz, chief product officer at IONOS – one of Europe’s biggest cloud and hosting providers – explains that sovereignty is determined not only by a data centre’s physical location, but by who owns the provider and where the company is based.
Even if global providers run infrastructure within Europe, they may still fall under the legal framework of their home jurisdiction, creating friction with GDPR that no contract can fully resolve. “Sovereignty extends beyond GDPR compliance: it demands true technological authority over the cloud stack, open standards and genuine interoperability,” Dr. Nauerz noted.
This argument carries the greatest weight in regulated industries – such as financial services governed by the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and healthcare and critical infrastructure overseen by the NIS-2 (Network and Information Security) Directive – where businesses manage sensitive intellectual property or state-related workloads.
At GITEX AI EUROPE, IONOS will showcase what actionable sovereignty looks like: cloud infrastructure and AI solutions rooted in authentically European foundations, engineered to give organisations genuine scalability, robust security and complete data control.
Where cloud and AI converge
The sovereignty challenge intensifies significantly when AI enters the equation. Concerns have evolved beyond where data is stored to where models are trained and, crucially, where inference takes place.
Dr. Nauerz states it clearly: “If AI inference consolidates on non-European infrastructure before sovereign compute scales up, enterprise AI strategies become legally exposed – regardless of where the data sits. That closing window is outpacing most cloud migration timelines.”
Organisations that weave sovereign infrastructure into their AI strategy from the start – rather than trying to bolt it on later – will be best placed as AI becomes central to their operations. This sequence of priorities will be front and centre in the commercial showcases at GITEX AI EUROPE 2026.
Complexity becomes the primary vulnerability
Richard Werner, cybersecurity platform lead for Europe at TrendAI (a division of Trend Micro), brings a complementary viewpoint. From a purely technical threat standpoint, Werner contends that the cloud provider’s jurisdiction does not fundamentally alter the type of cyber risk. Even as the sovereignty debate continues, many enterprises have settled into hybrid cloud environments – distributing workloads across multiple providers.
It is a logical approach, yet it is also where the most frequent and damaging security gaps tend to emerge. “Hybrid setups maintain flexibility, but that added complexity frequently produces the most widespread weaknesses: inconsistent identity and access controls, configuration errors and fragmented monitoring and response,” Mr. Werner explained.
At GITEX AI EUROPE, Trend Micro will present TrendAI Vision One: an AI-driven cybersecurity platform that brings together cyber risk exposure management, security operations and layered protection within a single, unified solution that adapts to any compliance or regulatory requirement.
Its adaptable deployment across public cloud, sovereign and air-gapped environments is purpose-built for the mixed architectures that many European enterprises now operate.
Sovereignty shifts into infrastructure at GITEX AI EUROPE
Europe has spent years discussing digital sovereignty in policy papers, whitepapers and strategic plans. What is changing now is the commercial urgency. The €180 million sovereign cloud tender awarded in April 2026 is the clearest indication of sovereign control transitioning from a principle to a procurement decision – accelerating the shift at a pace not seen before.
Supported by Germany’s federal government, the European Innovation Council, and Berlin’s own institutional infrastructure, GITEX AI EUROPE arrives at a crossroads where many of the decisions shaping the continent’s digital self-determination will be made – with consequences that will endure for years. For further details, visit www.gitexeurope.com
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