SAP combines AI and cloud capabilities in a full-stack solution: EU AI Cloud. It aims to make sovereign, cloud-based AI accessible for European customers.
SAP brings previously introduced capabilities together in one framework with the launch of the EU AI Cloud. This is a full-stack cloud solution where users can determine their required level of sovereignty for their AI solutions.
For AI functions, SAP partners with Cohere to make multimodal AI accessible in the EU. Cohere North is being integrated into the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This combination should enable AI implementation in business processes, even when data residency requirements are very strict.
Beyond Cohere, SAP also relies on various partners, including French Mistral AI and OpenAI. Solutions from both parties are available within SAP BTP.
Four variants
The core of the EU AI Cloud offering, however, is sovereignty. To this end, SAP offers four implementation options, tailored to different sovereignty needs. Customers can consume the EU AI Cloud in the following ways:
- SAP Sovereign Cloud on SAP Cloud Infrastructure (EU): IaaS within SAP’s European data centers, built on open source technology. All data remains within the EU in compliance with European regulations.
- SAP Sovereign Cloud On-Site: SAP manages the infrastructure within a customer-chosen data center. This offers maximum technical, operational, and legal sovereignty while maintaining SAP’s cloud innovations.
- Selected hyperscalers by market: For organizations wanting to run SAP’s commercial SaaS services on global cloud providers, supplemented with sovereignty functionality where required.
- Delos Cloud: A secure and sovereign cloud solution in Germany, focused on the public sector and aligned with national digital sovereignty requirements.
Sovereignty as a spectrum
Sovereignty has become a broad concept, tainted with marketing. In the context of this announcement, SAP views sovereignty as a scale relating to data control. For example, if you choose the hyperscaler solution, true sovereignty isn’t possible since Google, AWS, and Microsoft are subject to the US Cloud AI Act.
Even with hyperscalers, protections are built in regarding where data is stored, though these aren’t nearly as robust as marketing might suggest. Microsoft itself has already admitted this.
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True sovereignty within the EU implies that no non-EU entity can legally gain access to data in any way. In this case, you can only work with companies that don’t have headquarters in the US (given the obligations of the Cloud AI Act there). The EU AI Cloud version with German cloud provider Delos Cloud meets these requirements, for example.