The Rising Tide of Digital Sovereignty
As the world races toward digital transformation, Canadian public sector organizations and regulated industries face a critical inflection point: modernize operations or risk falling further behind. This urgency is underscored by Canada’s drop in the UN E-Government Development Index—from sixth in 2003 to 32nd in 2022—with only 23 percent of government services fully available online. The pressure to deliver secure, compliant, and citizen-centric digital services is immense. Yet for many federal departments, crown corporations, provincial and municipal governments, and national security organizations, viable Canadian cloud options have been elusive—until now.
SAP Sovereign Cloud is the only comprehensive solution purpose-built to meet Canada’s strict data residency, privacy, and security requirements. With in-country infrastructure, Canadian personnel, and compliance with laws like PIPEDA and the Privacy Act, SAP Sovereign Cloud directly addresses the risks of foreign data exposure and geopolitical threats. It empowers Canadian institutions to innovate confidently, knowing their data remains fully under Canadian jurisdiction and control.
Unveiling the Power of Sovereign Cloud
The SAP Sovereign Cloud is a cloud portfolio and operating model designed to meet stringent national, regional, and industry-specific sovereignty and compliance demands. While a conventional commercial cloud service is secure and provides data residency for customer data and workloads, a sovereign cloud service goes far beyond. All customer data and the telemetry data related to the service are always geographically localized and isolated to Canada. With SAP Sovereign Cloud, all team members involved in operating and supporting the customer environment are physically located in Canada and are employees of SAP Canada Inc., holding a variety of security credentials to support security sensitive and regulated customers. Finally, the SAP Sovereign Cloud service also meets compliance, audit and assessment requirements that are unique to public sector and regulated industries, including stringent requirements from the Government of Canada.
SAP Sovereign Cloud offers organizations:
- Data Sovereignty: All data storage and processing occurs within Canada, compliant with laws such as the Privacy Act, PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act), GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and Quebec Law 25.
- Operational Sovereignty: Canadian personnel holding a variety of security credentials to support complex and security sensitive customers.
- Legal Sovereignty: Full compliance with Canadian and provincial laws, ensuring data remains protected under a trusted jurisdiction.
- Technical Sovereignty: Advanced security measures, including isolated environments, compliant encryption, and robust access controls to prevent unauthorized access, safeguard critical infrastructure, and mitigate cyber threats.
Sovereign Cloud is a Necessity for Canadian Enterprises
Canadian businesses in public sector, aerospace & defence, healthcare, utilities, and other regulated industries are operating under strict government regulations and dealing with rising geopolitical tensions and increasing cyber threats. SAP Sovereign Cloud offers a critical safeguard that allows them to mitigate the risk of non-compliance while providing access to state-of-the-art innovation in a cloud service delivery model. They can ensure Canadian data residency and advanced security, manage supply chain risk, conduct specialized audit and assessments, and adhere to evolving regulatory frameworks
Unlocking Operational Excellence with Sovereign Cloud
Beyond security and compliance, SAP Sovereign Cloud opens doors to innovation:
Innovation Pipeline: SAP’s functional innovations flow to Sovereign Cloud, providing public sector and regulated industries access to secure and compliant leading-edge capabilities in the cloud.
Continuous Updates: Customers always have access to the latest capabilities without the need for major upgrade projects.
Evolving Compliance: A dedicated local team ensures the service adapts to the ever-changing security and compliance requirements across Canada, reducing the burden on customers.
The Future is Sovereign Cloud in Canada
Customers across Canada are embracing SAP Sovereign Cloud and are transforming their operations today even when months ago, they thought accessing innovation in the cloud while maintaining regulatory compliance would not be possible. In a world where data protection, regulatory compliance, and access to innovation are paramount, SAP Sovereign Cloud is not just a choice — it is an imperative. A new era of digital sovereignty and unparalleled data security is here to empower governments and regulated industries across Canada to transform with the help of SAP Sovereign Cloud.
Learn more about how services from SAP Canada, like SAP Sovereign Cloud, are enabling government and regulated industries to modernize their operations while safeguarding highly regulated data. SAP’s investment in Canada’s Sovereign Cloud is part of a wider multi-billion-dollar investment globally. SAP’s Sovereignty commitment is to build a secure and sovereign future which includes the broadening of Sovereign Cloud computing capabilities, upholding digital resilience, maintaining data privacy and protecting cybersecurity.
