IBM Cloud introduces the IBM Cloud Sovereignty Risk Profile, a new tool that helps companies demonstrate their digital sovereignty. The solution is part of IBM’s Security and Compliance Center Workload Protection and offers continuous monitoring of cloud workloads. Organizations and governments can use it to demonstrate their control over sovereignty, ranging from data residency and encryption to operational independence.
IBM Cloud builds its sovereignty strategy on four pillars. The first is provability: compliance must be demonstrable, not merely claimed. Through continuous monitoring, the platform translates sovereignty requirements into measurable risk scenarios and delivers audit-ready evidence for regulators.
The second pillar is encryption. Through Keep Your Own Key (KYOK) technology, supported by FIPS 140-3 Level 4-certified hardware, the customer retains exclusive control over their own encryption keys. Not even IBM can decrypt the customer’s data.
Flexibility is central to the third pillar: organizations can choose from dedicated Multizone Regions, single-tenant cloud environments, or local partnerships where data centers are managed by local staff. Finally, the fourth pillar guarantees portability through open technologies such as Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes, to prevent vendor lock-in.
Part of a broader sovereignty portfolio
The Sovereignty Risk Profile is the latest addition to IBM’s sovereignty portfolio. In January 2026, IBM announced Sovereign Core, a software platform for sovereign cloud and AI environments, which became generally available in early May 2026 during IBM Think 2026.
With the Sovereignty Risk Profile, IBM is focusing primarily on highly regulated sectors such as government, financial services, and healthcare, where regulators are increasingly demanding audit-ready evidence.