Dutch government designing own sovereign data cloud
The Dutch government is working on a draft design for a sovereign government cloud that would run on data centers owned and operated by the national government. This was reported in a letter sent to the Tweede Kamer by State Secretary Eric van der Burg of the Interior Ministry (VVD).
Cabinet officials are developing the system together with government experts. The project is still in its design phase.
The sovereign cloud would differ from the current setup in a key way. Today, most government digital systems rely on cloud services provided by large American technology companies. Under the new model, the government would control the hardware, the physical location of the systems, and physical access to them.
In its explanation, the government said that “sovereign” means these core elements remain fully under state control, rather than being managed by external commercial providers.
Once the design is completed and considered sound, the government plans to make it public. That step would allow companies and research institutions to contribute to further development of the system.
Van der Burg wrote that the goal is for several government applications to be running on the sovereign cloud by the end of 2026. If those initial deployments are successful, the project could be expanded further. Future expansion would also involve cooperation with private companies.
