Fairbanks named as a representative vendor in the 2026 Gartner® Market Guide for cloud infrastructure sovereign solutions

For years, cloud adoption has been driven by innovation, scalability, and speed. Organizations embraced the cloud to modernize applications, accelerate digital transformation, and reduce operational complexity. The conversation was largely centered around capabilities.

Today, the conversation has changed.

Questions about where data is stored are no longer enough. Organizations increasingly want to understand who operates their infrastructure, who controls critical technology, and what happens if geopolitical events, changing regulations, or vendor decisions impact business continuity.

Gartner® states “Digital sovereignty concerns are rising among customers throughout the world. Organizations in these regions are becoming increasingly aware of their dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure providers“.

We are proud that Fairbanks has been recognized as a Representative Vendor in this guide, but perhaps even more importantly, we are pleased to see digital sovereignty receiving the attention it deserves.

For many years, digital sovereignty was often reduced to a single question: Where is my data stored?

While data residency remains important, today’s challenges are significantly broader. Gartner says that the three core principles of digital sovereignty that I&O vendors target are:

• Data sovereignty
• Operational sovereignty
• Technological sovereignty

We think that together, these principles define how much control an organization truly has over its IT environment.

• Can you decide who operates your infrastructure?
• Can you continue operating if your cloud provider changes its commercial model
• Can you maintain your environment independently if geopolitical circumstances suddenly change?

These questions are becoming increasingly relevant as cloud infrastructure evolves from an operational platform into critical national and business infrastructure.

Artificial intelligence is one of several factors changing how organizations think about cloud infrastructure. As AI adoption accelerates, organizations are processing larger volumes of sensitive data and running increasingly demanding workloads. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty, evolving regulations, and a growing desire to reduce dependency on foreign cloud providers are driving organizations to seek greater control over their IT environments.

For many organizations, the conversation is therefore no longer about choosing between public or private cloud. It is about building an infrastructure strategy that provides flexibility, resilience, and long term control while supporting future innovation.

For many organizations, sovereignty is not an end goal. It is a way to reduce risk while maintaining agility. The first step is therefore not selecting technology. It is defining what control actually means for your organization. Only then can infrastructure decisions be made that balance sovereignty, functionality, innovation, and cost.

Thus, Fairbanks is proud to be recognized as a representative vendor in the Gartner Market Guide for cloud infrastructure sovereign solutions.

For more than two decades, we have helped organizations design, build, and operate mission critical open source cloud platforms. Long before digital sovereignty became a board level discussion, we believed that organizations should have the freedom to control their own infrastructure, choose open technologies, and avoid unnecessary vendor lock in.

Today’s market confirms that this approach is becoming increasingly relevant. As organizations rethink their cloud strategies in light of AI, regulation, and geopolitical uncertainty, we remain committed to helping customers build cloud platforms that are secure, scalable, resilient, and designed for long term independence.

Sources: Gartner, Market Guide for Cloud Infrastructure Sovereign Solutions, Dennis Smith, Alessandro Galimberti, Rene Buest, Gregor Petri, 1 June 2026.

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