Building technological autonomy to accelerate innovation and growth
The changing geopolitical landscape of recent years has forced companies to set a new priority: to understand which dependencies – whether hardware or software – they can afford to have, and which are critical, thereby seeking to regain some degree of sovereignty. Given that we cannot envisage autarky, nor even complete digital autonomy – which is currently impossible – one of the first areas of focus is the management and governance of corporate data: “this is the key area in which digital sovereignty must be manifested by exercising control over the data value chain,” emphasises Prof. Giuliano Noci, Vice-Rector of the Politecnico di Milano, speaking at Radio24’s Digital Round Table organised on the theme of digital sovereignty (WHICH CAN BE VIEWED HERE).
“The expertise of the company’s staff and partners is crucial in this regard,” explains Giuseppe Di Franco, CEO of Lutech, “and, together with an understanding of the context, this must enable me to switch from provider A to provider B. In this way, the company retains control over its data, processes, functions and everything relating to the value of the business it manages.” Another factor Di Franco focused on is the time factor, which “works against sovereignty, because the longer we wait, the more we will find ourselves in an economic emergency where, in an attempt to catch up with other countries, we will have to relinquish our sovereignty. So I believe,” he says, “that decisions are already long overdue.”
When it comes to data control, we must not overlook the applications that draw on data from businesses or the public administration. Cristiano Cannarsa, CEO of Sogei, drew attention to this point. “The software for electronic invoicing, pre-filled tax returns, the national budget and the electronic tax process,” he explains, “was written by us; we know how it works and we have full control over it.” This, too, is sovereignty.
The discussion during the Digital Round Table also focused heavily on the cloud, a key factor in defining the scope of a company’s digital sovereignty. The example of the National Strategic Centre for Public Administration is interesting: “A very pragmatic approach has been adopted, utilising both the private cloud and American hyperscalers, whilst classifying data according to its level of criticality: ordinary data, strategic data or critical data,” says Andrea Campora, director of Leonardo’s Cyber & Security Solutions division. “We encrypt data on hyperscalers, but we do use them. We believe in a very pragmatic concept of sustainable sovereignty, which is always a balance between costs, risks and value.”
On the cloud front, the European Union is also taking action with the dual aim of supporting a European cloud industry and channelling part of public procurement towards European providers. “The response from the European Union and the Member States on these issues has been slow,” explains Innocenzo Genna, an expert on European digital regulation – “and by the time discussions on cloud sovereignty began, American hyperscalers already controlled 80–85 per cent of the European cloud market, whilst European institutions – like most national governments – were using a non-European operator as their cloud provider. Now this issue is one of the most important at European level, and the EU is taking action on three fronts: the first is to ensure that businesses are less at the mercy of the technologies they use; in other words, to ensure there are effective rules on portability, interoperability and the ability to switch providers. In this regard, legislation has already been adopted in the form of the Data Act. Then there is the Cada, a proposal currently being drafted in Brussels, a key aspect of which concerns the way in which public procurement is managed in the cloud sector. Finally, the other key piece of legislation is the Cyber Security Act, which focuses on hardware supply chains.”
