Sep 17, 2026/1 min readData Governance
Data Sovereignty Demands More Than a Promise: Snowflake Integrates with STACKIT
Data sovereignty is no longer just a baseline regulatory consideration. Across the EU, it's become a strategic priority for enterprises, public sector institutions and regulated industries like financial services, critical infrastructure, defense, healthcare and energy — requiring control over and security of core assets.
Three things are pushing it there: Foreign governments may assert legal reach over cloud infrastructure beyond their own borders; a handful of non-EU providers dominate the cloud market; and AI needs constant, deep access to an organization's most sensitive data to do its job, all of which raises the stakes around digital sovereignty.
With this in mind, Snowflake is proud to be working with Schwarz Digits — the IT and digital division of Schwarz Group — to expand options for customers pursuing sovereignty goals in Germany.
The integration of Snowflake with Schwarz Digits’s cloud STACKIT combines data hosting, a European encryption key system and open formats that put customers in control of their digital future with Snowflake’s world-class data and AI capabilities, as part of an ongoing roadmap built around optionality and customer choice.
"STACKIT represents something unique in the cloud landscape: a truly European cloud provider with the scale to serve Germany's most critical institutions. By integrating with STACKIT, Snowflake is saying something unambiguous to Germany's regulated markets: You can have world-class data and AI, while still supporting your data sovereignty requirements."
Michael Wieland
VP DACH & Eastern Europe, Snowflake
“Europe’s digital future requires choice, innovation and sovereignty to go hand-in-hand. At Schwarz Digits, we see our role as European hyperscaler and trust broker bringing together leading global technology with a clear path toward European digital sovereignty. Our collaboration with Snowflake starts with access to one of the world’s leading data and AI platforms and evolving into a sovereign deployment on STACKIT. Together, we enable customers to innovate at global scale while progressively gaining greater control over their data, infrastructure and digital future.”
Bernie Wagner
Chief Sales Officer, Schwarz Digits
Global AI scale meets sovereign European cloud infrastructure
STACKIT’s mission is to become Europe’s leading sovereign cloud provider and European Hyperscaler. The cloud provider operates data centers on European soil in Germany and Austria, is subject to European laws and provides a cloud environment that meets Europe’s most stringent regulatory requirements.
The European Sovereign Stack (ES³) Standard, STACKIT’s externally audited sovereignty certification, covers nine dimensions: the eight EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework objectives plus a dedicated AI sovereignty dimension. A sovereignty maturity model evaluates the digital sovereignty of IT services in four clear levels. It gives customers guidance to decide for the best services based on their requirements.
By integrating Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud with STACKIT’s sovereign infrastructure, organizations will gain several key protections:
- Transparent EU-based encryption and third-party access controls: Customers need the ability to detect, generate evidence and, where possible, technically prevent unwanted access to their data. This integration seeks to address those requirements. Encryption key ownership and control will be held within STACKIT's EU-based infrastructure, designed to support customers' data sovereignty and regulatory requirements under European law.
- Operational independence without lock-in: Customer data will be stored in Apache Iceberg™, an open source format, so that data remains accessible and operable under conditions where the primary technology vendor is unavailable. In that case, customer data remains accessible and usable through other open source tools without requiring complex migrations.
- Broad compliance coverage: Snowflake holds BSI C5, ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 20000, 22301, 9001 and 42001, SOC 2 Type II, TISAX, PCI-DSS and Cyber Essentials Plus, each independently audited. In the context of the Snowflake–STACKIT integration, both Snowflake and STACKIT independently hold BSI C5 attestations — a critical qualifying factor for regulated industries and critical workloads in Germany. More details at Snowflake Compliance Center and STACKIT Certificates.
- Future outlook: Snowflake and STACKIT continue to explore opportunities to take their strategic collaboration to the next level, which includes mapping out a path toward a more fulsome integration of a Snowflake offering on STACKIT.
Learn more about Snowflake’s data sovereignty capabilities
Forward-looking statements
This article contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding planned integrations, future product availability, deployment timelines and roadmap direction, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and do not represent commitments to deliver specific features or timelines. Snowflake’s integration with STACKIT and associated product capabilities are subject to ongoing development, partner agreements and regulatory processes. Actual results and offerings may differ materially.
