India's Sovereignty Conundrum Expands to AI Control

The concept of sovereignty in cloud computing is evolving beyond just where data resides. With AI becoming embedded into enterprise systems, control over access, encryption keys, and model behavior has become a critical aspect of digital sovereignty.

Ravi Jain, Vice President of Systems & Cloud Sales at IBM India & South Asia, emphasizes that data residency is only the starting point for digital sovereignty. He notes that keeping data within India addresses where the data is stored, but sovereignty ultimately means who has control over the data, technology, and operations throughout the lifecycle of a workload.

Enterprises must look beyond physical location to questions such as who operates the environment, controls administrative access, manages encryption keys, and governs software updates. This expanded definition of sovereignty encompasses not just data but also operations, technology, and AI.

The shift from traditional applications to generative and agentic AI has further complicated the sovereignty conversation. Enterprises must now consider where models run, how inference takes place, what data models can access, and who controls model behavior.