Snowflake AI Data Cloud is now also integrated with STACKIT. The cloud platform from Schwarz Digits, owner of Lidl, is thus becoming an increasingly viable European sovereign alternative to U.S. hyperscalers. Customer data will remain stored in Apache Iceberg, while encryption keys are housed within STACKIT’s EU-based infrastructure.
Like STACKIT, Snowflake holds the C5 certificate issued by Germany’s BSI, the country’s cybersecurity authority. Both companies state that this certificate, in combination with ISO 27001, ISO 42001, and PCI-DSS compliance, among others, ensures secure, sovereign cloud usage.
Although many workloads can be run within STACKIT, European companies will not always opt for this cloud in its entirety. Instead, it makes sense to partially repatriate cloud environments to European hosting providers, with a focus on sensitive and/or mission-critical IT processes.
Certified stack
“Data sovereignty ultimately revolves around freedom of choice,” says Martin Frederik, Country Manager for Benelux at Snowflake. According to him, organizations must be able to determine for themselves where data is stored and who manages the keys.
U.S. cloud providers claim that they not only offer the most secure environments but can also meet sovereignty requirements. Examples include (often significantly more expensive, as we understand) sovereignty options within Azure or AWS, among others, with guarantees regarding maintenance by European citizens and no data traffic outside Europe. Due to U.S. legislation that can compel companies to hand over data, these promises have often failed to stand up to reality. The most prominent example of this is an admission by a Microsoft spokesperson in a French court case that EU data traffic may, after all, extend beyond the continent.
Ecosystem growing rapidly
STACKIT has been building a partner network centered on sovereignty for several years now to offer serious competition to U.S. hyperscalers. As early as 2025, the company had already signed deals with Zscaler, among others. This year, CrowdStrike, Celonis, and RISE with SAP joined the list.
STACKIT is also active in the Netherlands, again with a strong emphasis on sovereignty. For example, in May, KPN announced a sovereign cloud based on STACKIT. This is aimed at government customers and organizations in the healthcare, energy, and financial services sectors. That service is already operational in German and Austrian regions; the Dutch version is expected in mid-2027.
Snowflake and STACKIT say they are exploring which additional Snowflake features could be made available through STACKIT. Exactly what this will look like and when these enhancements will be rolled out remains unknown.