Enabling Europe’s Digital Sovereignty Through Technology

For years, Europe has discussed the concept of digital sovereignty, but geopolitical fragmentation and a growing ambition for technological independence have moved the discussion from theory toward action. On November 18, the French and German governments will host a high-level summit aimed at turning this aspiration into a practical roadmap. It’s a pivotal moment as policymakers, industry leaders, and advocates unite to safeguard Europe’s digital future.

Let’s be clear: Europe is charting new territory. The ambition to secure control over critical digital infrastructure, redefine data governance, and unlock innovation is bold, understandable, and yet complex. It is, however, not a concept with a clear definition. In fact, if one visited the various EU capitals one would probably encounter more than 27 different versions of what “digital sovereignty” could mean. But the lack of one coherent and agreed upon definition should not be misunderstood. To paraphrase a senior official from one of the largest member states during a recent conversation: The call for digital sovereignty is loud and ideological. 

In Europe, there is indeed an increasing convergence on a number of principles. First and foremost, it’s about securing the future; about being in control of data, being independent, ensuring service continuity, demanding transparency, and making sure that Europe reaps the benefits of the digital age and remains competitive on the global stage.

The tech industry has a responsibility to respond in earnest. At Zscaler, we understand the critical nature of this goal. We believe sovereignty must be achieved on European terms. As a global leader in cybersecurity with almost 2,500 customers across Europe, we are committed to innovating and delivering cutting-edge technology that aligns with and supports Europe’s digital vision. As a testament to this commitment Zscaler was in 2010 the first security service provider to build a cloud for Europe.

Ahead of the Summit in Berlin, we offer our perspective on some of the defining elements of digital sovereignty and explore how solutions deliver the security, flexibility, and independence European organizations demand to thrive in today’s interconnected world.

1. Safeguarding European Data

Europe’s data must be private, secure, and local. As organizations adopt global cloud systems, they are concerned about losing control over sensitive information to outside actors or cyberthreats. Data sovereignty is about keeping data protected, and ensuring compliance with national rules while building trust for critical operations.

How Zscaler Supports Europe’s Data Protection and Localization Goals:

• Zscaler does not store end-user content: All inline traffic processing is performed in-memory inside the local infrastructure, simplifying data control.
• The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange secures application access without exposing sensitive data.
• The platform’s cloud-native design leverages encryption, data visibility, and granular access controls, seamlessly aligning with GDPR and broader compliance requirements.
• Customers can opt to exclusively use European infrastructure. Zscaler has 25 data centers across Europe (20 in EU countries), ensuring data processing happens locally for optimal performance and sovereignty.
• European customers' can ensure that their log data is stored within Europe. However, customers have full control over storage decisions and have the option to have data hosted in any sovereign or in-country logging zones.
• Zscaler makes data control simple and enables organizations to uphold the principles of Privacy by Design and Privacy by Default while delivering low-latency, highly secure access. 

2. Securing Digital Autonomy

Digital sovereignty involves reducing overreliance on foreign technologies, and keeping control over systems. Europe needs flexible frameworks that avoid vendor lock-in while enabling secure innovation. Without autonomy, organizations risk being limited in how they evolve and protect their most critical digital assets.

How Zscaler Facilitates Europe's Technological Independence and Cybersecurity Goals:

Enabling Europe’s Technological Independence:

• Zscaler’s vendor-neutral architecture allows European businesses to retain flexibility in their IT frameworks, allowing organisations to mix and match solutions across cloud, data, endpoint, identity, and services from different technology providers. For more information, please visit: /partners/technology
• Zscaler facilitates delegation of administration which allows only EU citizens to define policies, logging and viewing of any data on our platform.
• A cloud-based approach ensures businesses can reduce dependencies on legacy systems while avoiding vendor lock-in, preserving sovereignty and freedom to innovate.
• Zscaler ensures businesses can migrate from legacy systems without being locked into specific hardware, proprietary ecosystems, or constrained by external dependencies.

Securing Europe’s Critical Infrastructure:

• With Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture, users and devices are continuously authenticated and authorized before accessing applications, preventing breaches.
• Zscaler’s advanced threat protection capabilities protect organisations from malware, Zero-Day vulnerabilities, and AI-driven cyberthreats, while safeguarding operations across the continent.
• Zscaler is working with hosting and service providers to own & operate sovereign solutions built on Zscaler cloud solutions in their European datacenters. 

Zscaler is redefining security for a resilient, self-reliant Europe by blending cutting-edge technology with scalable and best-in-class security.

3. Accelerating Innovation

Innovation drives growth and competitiveness, and Europe must embrace new technologies to stay ahead. To succeed, organizations need to adopt solutions that are secure and compliant, while still giving them the ability to operate and scale confidently without putting sensitive data at risk.

How Zscaler Facilitates Europe’s Innovation and Competitiveness Goals:

• By facilitating secure, cloud-first strategies, Zscaler reduces infrastructure costs, freeing resources for new investments in innovation and growth. Scalable, flexible solutions allow organizations to confidently adopt emerging technologies.
• With Zscaler’s capabilities, businesses can seamlessly enable secure hybrid work environments, delivering security and flexibility for modern workplaces.
• Zscaler innovates, improves operational efficiencies, and responds to market trends faster, gaining a critical edge against international competitors, while maintaining compliance with Europe’s rigorous regulatory standards.
• A no-compromise Zero Trust approach ensures that organizations can innovate and expand without exposing their systems, people, or data to unnecessary risk.
• At the same time, a transition away from legacy technology offers the additional advantage of combining state-of-the-art protection while reducing costs: Unlike previous technological innovations, moving forward saves resources. 

Zscaler redefines what it means to innovate securely in the digital age, ensuring that European businesses grow and stay competitive internationally.

4. Delivering Responsible AI

AI has the potential to transform the digital economy, but it also brings security vulnerabilities and the risk of misuse. Europe’s goal is to adopt AI responsibly by focusing on privacy, ethical standards, and robust safeguards that ensure trust and transparency in AI systems. As recently recommended in a joint report by French and German authorities, Zero Trust must be applied to LLM systems to address AI-specific security challenges.

How Zscaler Enables Responsible AI Adoption:

• Achieving the productivity gains from AI requires that the AI systems can run safely without exposing organizations to risk.
• Zscaler is committed to ensuring that any AI systems it deploys in its products adheres to the regulatory requirements set forth in the EU AI Act, which is the first comprehensive AI regulatory framework enacted in the world establishing global standards for transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI.
• Zero Trust principles protect sensitive AI datasets and data pipelines, preventing manipulation, theft, and malicious exploitation while preserving the integrity of algorithms and models.
• Through Zero Trust architecture, Zscaler safeguards the use of AI models, agentic AI, and their data pipelines, ensuring the integrity of AI solutions.
• Zscaler helps European organizations maximize the potential of AI, meeting ethical standards, and protecting systems and data pipelines against misuse.

5. Providing Operational Resilience

Disruptions from cyberattacks, natural disasters, damage to undersea cables, and political uncertainty can threaten critical systems and data. Operational resilience helps businesses stay functional and secure during such events, ensuring stability and continuity even in unforeseen circumstances.

How Zscaler Bolsters Operational Resilience:

• Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture ensures secure, direct access to cloud services and applications, even during disruptions caused by internet outages or attacks on critical infrastructure such as undersea cables, due to our resilient data center architecture, keeping European businesses operational when it matters most.
• With real-time threat protection, Zscaler prevents ransomware and other cyber threats from disrupting critical infrastructure and business operations.
• Zscaler provides secure, flexible access that supports employees working from anywhere while maintaining security standards.
• By decoupling security from legacy network models, and embracing cloud-native solutions, Zscaler empowers organizations to adapt quickly to shifting geopolitical conditions, ensuring business continuity in even the most uncertain environments.
• Zscaler is the first cloud security solution to deliver a business continuity solution.  Through either customer-hosted or third-party hosted infrastructure, Zscaler customers are protected from service interruptions due to black-outs, brown-outs, catastrophic failures of infrastructure, terrorism, or regulatory/policy changes.  Issues local to the user, between the user and the cloud, or a cloud incident are detected and fail-over to a business continuity solution occurs automatically.
• Our customers have an option to keep using a self-hosted private service edge even in case of a catastrophic global routing event which would make all cloud services unavailable.
• Zscaler builds resilience into organizations’ systems, protecting operations against disruptions and safeguarding sovereignty goals.
• Zscaler delivers destination agility and resilience by dynamically rerouting traffic and adapting paths in real time, maintaining secure and continuous connectivity during internet or cloud disruptions.

The New Reality Requires a Renewed Commitment to Europe’s Digital Future

As we approach the Franco-German Summit on European Digital Sovereignty, two principles stand out as essential to the success of Europe’s digital ambitions:

1. Digital sovereignty and open strategic autonomy must be shaped on European terms, driven by European priorities and values. This means that technology companies must innovate and deliver solutions that align with Europe’s needs and aspirations.
2. Trusted technology providers that deliver Europe’s sovereignty in practice—not just in words—should be empowered to keep contributing to this vision. EU policy should allow trusted technology providers that demonstrably advance Europe’s sovereignty to continue contributing to this vision.

Combining these principles is, in our view, critical to achieving Europe’s sovereign digital future, as well as its global competitiveness at this pivotal moment in history.

At Zscaler, we recognize that enabling Europe’s digital sovereignty is about empowering European organizations to secure their systems, innovate without boundaries, and thrive on their own terms. As a global leader in Zero Trust security Zscaler is uniquely positioned to help European organizations meet today’s challenges and build a resilient, self-reliant future.