How digitally sovereign are you? Red Hat can help measure that
Source: ZDNet
*Image credit: Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images*
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### ZDNET's key takeaways
- Trust in U.S. tech companies is waning, increasing the importance of digital sovereignty.
- Red Hat’s open‑source evaluation toolkit helps you assess your digital sovereignty.
- You, not Red Hat, control your data and how you use the evaluation.
Over the past year, several governments and companies outside the U.S. have decided they can’t trust American tech firms. Consequently, **digital sovereignty has become an important goal**. While American companies aren’t thrilled about this shift, many are now helping European organizations achieve their sovereignty objectives.
One of the first to act was Linux and cloud‑native computing powerhouse **[Red Hat](https://www.redhat.com/en)**. Late last year, Red Hat became the **first U.S. company to announce its own EU‑specific digital sovereignty program**, **Red Hat Confirmed Sovereign Support (RHCSS)**. This initiative guarantees that critical European IT operations remain under EU control.
> **Also:** [Why even a U.S. tech giant is launching “sovereign support” for Europe now](https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-even-a-us-tech-giant-is-launching-sovereign-support-for-europe-now/)
Now, Red Hat backs this effort with its open‑source **Digital Sovereignty Readiness Assessment** toolkit. The tool gives governments and enterprises a concrete way to measure how much control they have over their data, infrastructure, and operations amid geopolitical cloud anxiety.
The new **web‑based, self‑service survey** walks organizations through 21 multiple‑choice questions covering:
- Data residency
- Encryption‑key control
- Disaster‑recovery planning for geopolitical events
- Preventing sensitive data from crossing borders
The goal is to move digital sovereignty from vague policy talk to a measurable “sovereignty baseline” that IT and business leaders can act on.
[Take the Digital Sovereignty Readiness Assessment](https://www.feedback.redhat.com/jfe/form/SV_1LGSam42lrM4Ddk?_gl=1*164dyfi*_gcl_au*MTIyMDYwNTY5OC4xNzY3NjU1MTMz)An “Open Standard” for Assessing Digital Sovereignty
If you have all the information you need at hand, the survey should take 10–15 minutes to complete.
Red Hat’s framework evaluates sovereignty maturity across seven domains:
| Domain | Description |
|---|---|
| Data sovereignty | Control over where and how data is stored and processed |
| Technical sovereignty | Ownership of the technology stack and its components |
| Operational sovereignty | Ability to run workloads independently of any single provider |
| Assurance sovereignty | Guarantees around security, compliance, and risk |
| Open‑source strategy | Use and contribution to open‑source ecosystems |
| Executive oversight | Governance and decision‑making structures |
| Managed services | Reliance on third‑party services and their impact on autonomy |
At the end of the questionnaire, organizations receive a score mapped to four stages:
- Foundation – Basic awareness and initial controls
- Developing – Emerging processes and partial independence
- Strategic – Integrated policies and measurable autonomy
- Advanced – Full control and continuous improvement
The output also includes a roadmap of recommended next steps and research questions for stakeholders.
Open‑source and vendor‑neutral
Red Hat is releasing both the tool and its underlying criteria under the Apache 2.0 license, positioning it as an open standard for digital‑sovereignty assessment.
- Source code & methodology:
- The framework is vendor‑neutral and can be adopted, extended, or forked by partners, competing vendors, and end users.
“For sovereignty to be real and obtainable, the behind‑the‑scenes math must be accountable and open for inspection. Red Hat is providing the transparent standard to give our customers the confidence that their sovereign strategy is exactly that.” – Hans Roth, Senior VP & GM, EMEA, Red Hat
The tool runs entirely in the browser; assessment data never leaves the client unless you choose to host the code yourself.
Related reading
-
Why open source may not survive the rise of generative AI – ZDNet
-
Why France just dumped Microsoft Teams and Zoom – and what’s replacing them – ZDNet
What’s next?
- Use the assessment to gauge your current sovereignty posture.
- Compare Red Hat’s open‑source offering with similar toolkits from US cloud providers.
- Decide whether to adopt Red Hat’s services, another vendor’s solution, or build an in‑house capability.
The Digital Sovereignty Readiness Assessment toolkit can help you determine whether any of these options meet your organization’s needs.