If Microsoft were to stop delivering updates for its software, SAP’s subsidiary Delos would face a major problem. The cloud provider could keep its services running for a while, perhaps a few months. After that things would come to an end. The reason is that the Delos Cloud, developed for German public authorities, is based on Microsoft technology.

No matter how realistic or unrealistic such scenarios are, critics do not consider the Delos Cloud to be sovereign for this reason. The German Federal Association for Digital Sovereignty even calls the Delos Cloud a black box that cannot be independently controlled by German or European authorities. Against this backdrop, and given the debate of recent months about which cloud offerings in Germany and Europe truly deserve the label sovereign, SAP now promises to strengthen Europe’s digital independence.

The company wants to achieve this with the help of French partners. On board are the cloud provider Bleu, the AI company Mistral AI and the consulting group Capgemini. During the announcement to journalists, Martin Merz, President for the SAP Sovereign Cloud, said: „We have really understood the need for digital sovereignty.“ For this reason SAP already announced billion euro investments in this area in September.

At the same time, Merz also said when asked: nothing will change regarding the Microsoft technology in the Delos Cloud. SAP offers its customers different products. For Delos and for the French cooperation partner Bleu, Microsoft will continue to provide the underlying cloud technology. Together with its announced investments in September, SAP also expanded its cloud offering. Open source technologies are used there as well. Analysts view this as the best solution when the goal is true independence.

The software group SAP emphasises that customers can choose from various cloud offerings. This will also apply to artificial intelligence. Only a few weeks ago SAP announced a cooperation with the US company OpenAI. On Tuesday it signed contracts with the French startup Mistral AI. Together with its partner, SAP aims to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty in the field of artificial intelligence. However, the question remains how independent the French company actually is. Among the investors of Mistral AI are several familiar names from the United States. Microsoft invested 15 million euros last year. Nvidia, Salesforce and IBM are also on the list.

Beyond the issue of an expiration date for the Delos Cloud, the Federal Association for Digital Sovereignty sees a more fundamental problem in the use of hyperscaler technology. Since Microsoft is subject to US law, and therefore for example to the Cloud Act, a data outflow cannot be completely ruled out. „In case of doubt the company would have to obey instructions from the US government,“ explains Miriam Seyffarth from the Open Source Business Alliance. German public administrations are forced to rely on Microsoft’s assurances. „The source code cannot be independently examined to ensure that there are no backdoors or access options.“

And finally, even those who are supposed to use the Delos Cloud appear to have concerns. The Interior Ministry of Baden Württemberg has reviewed the Delos Cloud, and admitted in a statement in July that the administrative cloud cannot fully ensure digital sovereignty. The application layer remains Microsoft software, it is not publicly accessible, and the source code is controlled by the manufacturer. However, the ministry also states: „The Delos Cloud is currently the only option in Germany that allows Microsoft cloud solutions to be used in accordance with domestic data protection standards and with increased control over data sovereignty.“