Accenture Launches Sovereign Cloud Practice to Help Companies Unlock Innovation in the Cloud

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced a new worldwide practice to help organisations take advantage of disruptive new technologies in the cloud utilising trusted frameworks, services and controls.

The new Accenture Cloud First Sovereign Practice includes four new sovereign cloud centres in Kronberg, Germany; Trondheim, Norway; Paris and Rome. Located within Accenture Innovation Hubs, these centres bring Accenture industry, security and technology specialists together in collaboration with ecosystem partners to accelerate the digitisation of business processes and to expose new data collaboration opportunities.

Sovereign cloud is an approach that allows organisations to control the location, access to and processing of their data in a cloud environment in response to new, emerging industry standards and compliance requirements in specific countries or sectors.

“Organisations and entire economies across Europe are currently reinventing their futures on cloud to become more resilient, sustainable and innovative,” said Jean-Marc Ollagnier, CEO of Accenture in Europe. “Whether the goal is to accelerate the switch to greener energy sources, respond to supply chain disruptions or speed up drug discovery, all these transformations rely on cloud, data and artificial intelligence. And they will require sovereign frameworks for data storage and sharing between trusted partners. The new Accenture sovereign cloud centres will help organisations address this challenge, enabling innovation in a way that aligns with European values and standards.”

Accenture Cloud First Global Lead Karthik Narain noted, “Cloud was initially about IT efficiency and modernisation. Today, cloud is all about driving business growth and innovation. The cloud continuum is where many of the world’s technology breakthroughs are happening — from AI to edge computing to the metaverse. But to harness sovereign cloud’s power, organisations need ways to use and share trusted data confidently, in a secure and compliant way. This often involves navigating an intricate patchwork of technology solutions while aligning with various regional, local and industry regulations — not only in the European Union, but around the world. Our new practice and centres in Europe will be a catalyst in the global sovereign cloud movement.”

From the new sovereign cloud centres in Europe, clients can now see live industry examples and develop a blueprint to pro-actively address and solve their sovereign cloud requirements with dedicated support from Accenture Cloud First specialists in change management, security skills and business process experience, and a place to collaborate with partners across the cloud ecosystem.