Bengaluru: IBM announced IBM Sovereign Core, a purpose-built, AI-ready sovereign-enabled software designed to help enterprises, governments, and service providers build, deploy, and manage secure, compliant, and self-governed technology environments.
As regulatory scrutiny intensifies and AI adoption accelerates, organizations are increasingly seeking greater control over how their digital infrastructure, data, and AI workloads are operated and governed.
IBM Sovereign Core addresses the growing global imperative for digital sovereignty by enabling organizations to retain full operational authority over their environments.
This need is being driven by evolving regulations, heightened governance requirements, and the expanding use of AI workloads that often process sensitive and regulated data.
According to Gartner, more than 75% of enterprises are expected to adopt a digital sovereignty strategy by 2030, underscoring the urgency for sovereign-first technology foundations.
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IBM Sovereign Core Redefines Digital Sovereignty Beyond Data Residency
Digital sovereignty extends beyond data residency to include who controls the technology stack, how data and identities are managed, where workloads execute, and under which jurisdiction AI models operate.
IBM Sovereign Core provides organizations with a sovereign landing zone to modernize, re-host, and operate cloud-native and AI-enabled applications while maintaining complete operational control and continuous compliance reporting.
“As AI adoption accelerates in India, businesses must innovate while complying with tightening regulatory requirements and safeguarding sensitive data,” said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia.
“IBM Sovereign Core offers an AI-ready sovereign stack that ensures compliance, control, and operational autonomy. Built on open-source foundations and open standards, it supports flexibility while helping organizations avoid infrastructure lock-in as they scale AI adoption.”
Sovereignty as a Software Foundation with IBM Sovereign Core
Unlike solutions that layer sovereignty controls on top of existing architectures, IBM Sovereign Core embeds sovereignty directly into the software itself.
Built on Red Hat’s open-source foundation, it enables verifiable sovereignty and full operational control across cloud-native and AI workloads deployed within chosen jurisdictions.
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Key capabilities of IBM Sovereign Core include:
- Customer-operated control plane: Organizations maintain direct authority over deployment, operations, and system configurations without reliance on out-of-region vendors.
- In-boundary identity and key management: Authentication, authorization, encryption keys, and access controls remain fully within jurisdictional boundaries.
- Continuous compliance and audit readiness: Operational data, telemetry, and audit trails are generated and retained within the sovereign environment to support ongoing compliance validation.
- Governed AI inference: AI model hosting, local GPU clusters, inference execution, and agent operations are governed locally, ensuring traceability without exporting sensitive data.
- Rapid and flexible deployment: Organizations can deploy isolated, multi-tenant sovereign environments within days, with flexibility across infrastructure and hardware choices.
Commenting on the announcement, Sanjeev Mohan, Principal at SanjMo, noted that the focus on sovereignty must go beyond data location.
He highlighted that IBM Sovereign Core addresses the critical question of system control and demonstrable compliance, which becomes increasingly essential as AI systems move into production environments.
Operational Flexibility and Partner-Led Deployments with IBM Sovereign Core
Organizations can deploy IBM Sovereign Core across on-premises data centers, supported in-region cloud infrastructure, or through IT service providers.
IBM has initiated global collaborations with IT service providers, beginning with deployments in Europe alongside Cegeka in Belgium and the Netherlands, and Computacenter in Germany. These partnerships enable local compliance management while supporting AI-scale workloads under sovereign control.
Gaetan Willems, VP Cloud & Digital Platforms at Cegeka, said the partnership enables enterprises to keep sensitive data within controlled boundaries while meeting local compliance standards through a pre-architected sovereign solution.
Computacenter echoed similar sentiments, highlighting that IBM Sovereign Core significantly reduces deployment timelines by eliminating the need to assemble and validate disparate sovereignty components.
IBM Sovereign Core Availability Timeline
IBM Sovereign Core will be available in tech preview starting February 2026, with general availability planned for mid-2026. Additional capabilities are expected to be introduced at general availability.
IBM reiterated that statements regarding future plans and capabilities are subject to change. Information shared is intended to outline general product direction and should not be relied upon for purchasing decisions.
Priya Srinivasan, General Manager, IBM Software Products, stated that increasing regulatory pressure and AI-driven innovation are creating an urgent need for sovereign AI-ready environments.
She added that IBM Sovereign Core enables organizations to move faster with confidence by combining openness, compliance, and operational autonomy without compromising sovereignty requirements.
