IGF 2025 Open Forum #62 Everything in the Cloud? How to remain digital autonomous.

Cloud computing underpins modern economies, yet its concentration among a few dominant providers raises critical concerns about digital autonomy, security, and regulatory compliance. While European countries are primarily dependent on U.S.-based hyperscalers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud), Asia presents a more diverse landscape and also use services from cloud providers as Alibaba and Tencent. Only few countries have managed to build a strong domestic cloud ecosystem, leaving many other countries to have become dependent of these large cloud providers. Some countries are looking into option to become less dependent and are promoting domestic growth by data localization policies, regulatory frameworks, strengthening national cloud initiatives and local technology partnerships. During the workshop we aim to ensure that governments understand (national) security and strategic dependencies from these cloud providers. And which regulatory mechanisms can effectively be adopted to ensure data protection (where necessary) while maintaining the benefits of cloud efficiency and scalability. Finally we will touch upon the question whether national governments should invest in sovereign cloud initiatives, or whether investments in the cloud market should be left to the market. So by the end of the workshop, participants will gain a deep understanding of global cloud dependencies and possibilities to develop actionable strategies for strengthening their digital autonomy in an open manner. This is particularly relevant for policymakers, IT leaders, cybersecurity professionals, and regulatory experts working on cloud governance.

During this hybrid session we will make use of interactive tools to engage with the audience by for example mentimeter. We have onsite and online speaker(s) and will ensure all have equal time to speak, also leaving ample time for quesitons and further engagement with the audience.