Opinion column by Jean-Baptiste Piacentino.
Digital sovereignty has entered the public debate as a simple answer to a complex question: how do we maintain control over our digital systems in a globalised and changing world? The concept may seem obvious, almost reassuring. But behind the word ‘sovereignty’ often lies a rigid vision, disconnected from technical and economic realities.
For companies, talking about sovereignty can be confusing, because their priorities are different from those of a State. The challenge is not to claim nationalist independence, but to ensure Strategic Digital Autonomy: the ability to choose technologies, protect data and control dependencies while remaining connected to the global market.
Why digital sovereignty is a dead end
In reality, no digital system is immune to global interdependencies. Hardware, software, cloud services and artificial intelligence tools are all part of international production chains. Even so-called sovereign infrastructures rely on hardware and software components designed elsewhere.
What’s more, legislation such as the Cloud Act shows that locating data is not enough to guarantee its control. The legal framework can cross borders as easily as digital flows.
In operational terms, building absolute digital sovereignty involves considerable investment, rare skills and a complexity that is difficult to manage. This path is out of reach, even for the largest companies. Worse still, it can lead to technological isolation, which runs counter to the flexibility that organisations need to evolve.
While the State must concern itself with digital sovereignty in the broadest sense – in particular to protect critical infrastructures, sensitive data and national security – businesses need above all to control their technological choices, secure their data and remain competitive. These two approaches complement each other, but are not mutually exclusive: sovereign public policy can create a more protective environment, while companies must ensure their autonomy in order to meet their own market challenges.
Strategic Digital Autonomy: a pragmatic and clear-sighted approach
Strategic Digital Autonomy is based on a simple principle: it’s not about controlling everything, but about remaining capable of making decisions. The important thing is not to eliminate dependencies, but to understand them, reduce them and manage them intelligently. Strategic Digital Autonomy gives businesses the means to act, adapt and secure their critical assets, while remaining open to innovation ecosystems.
It is based on a number of essential levers:
- Making informed technological choices.
It’s not just a question of selecting high-performance tools, but of understanding the long-term implications of the technologies you integrate into your information system. This includes taking a critical look at the publishers’ roadmaps, the maturity of the solutions, their ability to evolve, but also their compatibility with your own strategic objectives.
- Ensure data portability, interoperability, system reversibility and the adoption of open standards.
An autonomous digital architecture must enable data to be moved from one supplier to another, heterogeneous tools to communicate with each other and an environment to be exited without operational disruption. This structural flexibility protects the organisation against technological lock-in, reduces transition costs and makes it easier to adapt to market changes. The adoption of open standards is a key element in this approach: they ensure greater compatibility between systems, promote scalability and reduce the risks of dependency.
- Managing relationships with suppliers.
Strategic Digital Autonomy means managing supplier relationships with discernment: avoiding situations of excessive dependency, diversifying critical sources and intelligently contractualising commitments (reversibility clauses, data access guarantees, exit conditions, etc.). In some cases, this may mean abandoning the very latest innovation if it is accompanied by unfavourable conditions that threaten autonomy.
- Use secure environments.
The use of secure environments makes it possible to guarantee a level of protection appropriate to the data being processed. This requirement can be applied in a graduated way, from basic security measures to certified cloud systems, such as those that meet the SecNumCloud standard. These environments offer not only technical guarantees, but also controlled governance, which is essential to any approach to strategic digital autonomy.
The key role of open source software in Strategic Digital Autonomy
Open source software plays a key role in this approach. It provides technological building blocks that can be audited, modified and maintained over time. It offers companies the opportunity to use robust tools without being locked into a proprietary model. By giving access to the source code, it guarantees a level of transparency that no proprietary solution can offer. Open source software also facilitates cooperation while preserving independence. It is therefore a central asset for building effective and sustainable Strategic Digital Autonomy.
Strategic Digital Autonomy goes beyond national or federal frameworks
Strategic Digital Autonomy is not based on a nationalist logic. It does not depend on the location of technologies or the nationality of those who develop them. What counts is the ability to understand, control and, if necessary, regain control of critical components. It is obviously easier to exercise this control when the technologies are developed locally or when they fall within a legal framework that is consistent with the company’s governance (which favours the adoption of European solutions, for example). But this is not essential. The example of free software is a good illustration: a solution can be developed anywhere in the world, while remaining fully controllable locally.
Interdependence is not a weakness: it’s a strategic lever
Digital technology is a space of interconnections. Trying to isolate yourself from it would be unnatural and therefore counter-productive. What counts is knowing how to take advantage of the links without being subjected to them. Strategic Digital Autonomy makes it possible to turn dependencies into levers: controlling data portability, requiring reversibility in contracts, diversifying suppliers, etc. Instead of being subject to the constraints imposed by each technology or service provider, we impose our own conditions and give ourselves the ability to change course if necessary. In this way, the organisation benefits from innovations without losing its autonomy.
However, this approach presupposes the existence of real alternatives, so that the choice of supplier or technology is not made by default. For these alternatives to emerge, it is essential to have a favourable innovation and development environment, which encourages the creation of competing solutions and the implementation of open standards. This logic also includes the battle against monopolies, which limit the diversity of offerings and reinforce dependency. It is part of a proactive industrial policy aimed at supporting research, development and the marketing of trusted technologies.
From this perspective, interdependence is no longer an obstacle, but a normal component of a complex environment. The difference lies in our ability to anticipate and manage it.
Rethinking priorities: moving from myth to action
Rather than aiming for total and theoretical sovereignty, companies would benefit from strengthening their autonomy in a targeted and concrete way. This means concentrating efforts where the return on control is greatest: on critical data, on in-house skills, on flexible and scalable architectures, on open, audited and interoperable technologies.
Strategic Digital Autonomy is not about controlling everything, but about being able to make choices, reduce risks and remain free in a changing digital world. It allows you to build a solid strategy without cutting yourself off from the rest of the world. It is based less on closure than on agility, less on possession than on understanding.
Dreamt sovereignty or controlled autonomy?
Digital sovereignty is an attractive goal, but one that is difficult for businesses to achieve in practice. It is often based on a symbolic vision that is more political than operational. Strategic Digital Autonomy, on the other hand, offers a concrete, applicable perspective that is adapted to the realities of companies. It allows you to keep control without locking everything up, to cooperate without being subservient, to move forward with control rather than being stuck in a posture.
In an increasingly complex digital world, it is not the myth of absolute control that enables us to act, but the ability to govern our dependencies.
And that makes all the difference.
The key principles of strategic digital autonomy
Rather than pursuing absolute and illusory sovereignty, businesses need to take concrete action to strengthen their autonomy. This involves a number of essential principles:
- Accept that digital sovereignty is an illusion for businesses: technological interdependence is an inescapable reality.
- Favour Strategic Digital Autonomy as a pragmatic approach, enabling companies to retain control without seeking impossible isolation.
- Understanding and managing dependencies rather than hoping to eliminate them: anticipation and reversibility must guide technological choices.
- Guarantee the interoperability, portability and reversibility of systems to avoid any technological lock-in.
- Control the relationship with suppliers, by diversifying critical sources and providing a contractual framework for conditions of use and output.
- Adopt secure and certified environments, depending on the specific issues relating to the data and services being used.
- Relying on open source software to benefit from transparent, auditable technological building blocks that are independent of proprietary models.
- Overcome the nationalist vision of sovereignty: what matters is the ability to control and regain control of critical technologies, regardless of their origin.
- Turning interdependence into an asset, by intelligently managing it rather than being subjected to it.
- Moving from theory to action, by concentrating efforts on mastering data, developing skills and adopting open and flexible technologies.
Far from a rigid, idealised model, Strategic Digital Autonomy offers a realistic and effective way forward, enabling businesses to protect themselves, innovate and evolve in a constantly changing digital world.