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The Era of Digital Sovereignty Has Arrived
For European businesses, it's time for a strategic re-evaluation: Where is our critical data stored, and who ultimately controls it?
Hosting repatriation is more than just a technical fix; it’s a direct response to the complex regulatory and geopolitical pressures of 2025. It means migrating data and compute workloads from external jurisdictions and hyperscalers into infrastructure that is physically located within the EU/EEA and fully governed by European law.
This material will provide a detailed look at what is driving this trend, which specific laws are creating legal incentives, and why the speed of decision-making regarding data migration and choosing a new hosting provider is critical today.
The Legal Imperative: Laws Shaping the Choice
In its annual Report on the State of the Digital Decade 2025, the European Commission openly declares the goal of achieving "technological sovereignty." This is not just a slogan; it's a roadmap enforced by powerful regulatory acts.
Regulatory Act |
Objective |
Strategic Business Impact |
Data Act (September 2025) |
To guarantee the right to data portability and combat vendor lock-in. |
Gives hosting customers the legal tools to seamlessly extract data and switch providers. Customer data becomes fully and freely portable. |
DSA & DMA |
To increase competition, transparency, and accountability of major digital platforms. |
Indirectly reduces monopolistic dependence on global giants and stimulates the growth of local, specialized EU providers. |
GDPR (and the Schrems II Precedent) |
Protection of personal data and regulation of cross-border data flows. |
Prevents conflict with the CLOUD Act (US), which can demand the handover of data stored abroad but held by American companies. |
The core conclusion is clear: Hosting data within the EU with a provider subject only to European law is the most effective way to eliminate the conflict of jurisdictions and comply with GDPR Art. 48 (the mechanism for protecting European data against extraterritorial requests from foreign states, in simple terms).
Dispelling the Myth: Where the Repatriation Hype is Overstated
It's important to understand that repatriation is not a mass exodus from public clouds and hyperscalers. Some industry reports suggest that the scale of "coming home" is often exaggerated.
According to an October IDC report, repatriation remains a selective process. Companies typically only move sensitive or expensive-to-store data back in-house, rather than abandoning the cloud computing model entirely.
The Real Strategy
The goal is quite simple: Hybrid Sovereignty. Critical and personal data (specifically PII) must be hosted in Europe under local control, while non-sensitive data and elastic workloads can remain in the hyperscalers' public clouds.
Geopolitics and the Hidden Risks of the CLOUD Act
The CLOUD Act itself is not a new law and has long been a subject of discussion among cross-border data transfer experts. However, its impact is being re-evaluated today. The geopolitical realities – especially this current year – have turned the choice of hosting into a matter of corporate security. The risk of extraterritorial access is one of the main drivers of migration.
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CLOUD Act Risks: This law allows US authorities to request data from US providers regardless of where the servers are physically located within the EU. This creates a kind of constant legal uncertainty.
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The Solution – Jurisdictional Purity: Repatriation guarantees that your data is managed by an EU/EEA-based legal entity. This excludes the effect of extraterritorial requests, as the provider is not subject to US jurisdiction.
The Market Factor: Scarcity and the Urgency to Act
The European market is reacting to demand, but infrastructure development is not always keeping pace. This is a strategic signal: it is better to plan migration well in advance.
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Record demand growth: According to CBRE, Europe will complete the introduction of a record amount of data center capacity in 2025 (approximately 1 GW), but demand for local data centers is optimistically outstripping supply.
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Critically low vacancy: Available capacity in key hubs (Frankfurt, Amsterdam) is being rapidly exhausted. For instance, the same CBRE source in its latest report (Real Estate Market Outlook 2025 – Data Centres) indicates that the vacancy rate in Amsterdam has dropped from ~24% to almost ~9% over five years. And in Frankfurt, the Q1 vacancy rate was only around ~5.1%.
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The main constraint on explosive supply growth is the power deficit. According to Reuters for Q3 2025, ~91% of all live data center capacity in the EMEA region is already leased. Given that the main capacity is concentrated in the EU region, this suggests a very low average vacancy rate in key European hubs – no more than ~8%.
Reports show that repatriation could turn into a resource race. To secure a spot in reliable European infrastructure, especially in key locations, migration planning must begin now.
From Theory to Action: How to Select a Reliable EU Partner
Choosing the right provider is critical for the successful implementation of a data sovereignty strategy.
Here is a simple checklist for selecting a European provider:
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Jurisdiction Verification: Ensure the provider is incorporated in the EU/EEA and has no obligations to non-European authorities.
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Data Portability Terms: Clarify how the mechanisms supporting your right to data portability are implemented (formats, timelines, export conditions).
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Transparency of Data Storage Chains: Check who the subcontractors might be and where backup copies are physically located. This is a transparency requirement under both GDPR and the Data Act.
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Geographic Consideration: Choose locations close to your main customers to gain the maximum advantage of low latency and high UX.
Turn Compliance into a Competitive Advantage
Hosting repatriation is not a temporary trend; it is a new strategic imperative.
It allows your business to:
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Achieve clean GDPR + Data Act compliance and avoid the conflict of jurisdictions.
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Strengthen customer trust by declaring full European data sovereignty.
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Gain a competitive edge through the speed and reliability of local infrastructure.
In 2025, the winners will be those who act strategically: those who choose European infrastructure today to guarantee themselves legal security and technological sovereignty tomorrow.
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INTROSERV – Your trusted partner, ready to provide competent support in the repatriation process.
We offer solutions fully adapted to the requirements of the Data Act and GDPR. Our services guarantee data sovereignty and access to scarce capacity in key European data centers.
Don't delay this strategic decision. Contact us to assess your readiness for the Data Act and select the appropriate infrastructure based on dedicated servers and VPS.
