SAP and Microsoft have struck a partnership designed to provide safeguards for users of the US vendor's cloud services in Europe during "times of crisis."

Microsoft has signed separate deals with French and German sovereign cloud providers Bleu and Delos Cloud to provide assistance for cross-border cooperation in extensive crisis and emergency scenarios. This includes technical and operational cooperation to ensure rapid, coordinated crisis response even in extreme scenarios, such as military conflict or cyberattacks, according to an SAP announcement.

Delos Cloud is a subsidiary of SAP while Bleu is a French cloud services company launched in 2024 as a joint venture between Orange and Capgemini, in partnership with Microsoft.

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The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Delos Cloud and Microsoft gives the SAP subsidiary legal and technical capability to provide cloud services if a government outside Europe restricts Microsoft's cloud services for specific customers, according to the statement. Customers that Microsoft could no longer serve would have the option to migrate workloads to Delos Cloud as a nationally-operated cloud platform. Delos Cloud obtains the legal right to access and use the necessary Microsoft cloud software code to support those customers in such emergency situations.

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In a prepared statement, Christian Klein, SAP CEO, said: "Europe's competitiveness depends on its ability to innovate without compromise by combining technological excellence with full digital sovereignty. By joining forces with France's world-class AI ecosystem, SAP is helping to build a trusted digital foundation for Europe where innovation is open, data is protected and technology truly serves people and progress."

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The MoU is designed to "safeguard business continuity in Europe in times of crisis" while the Delos Cloud and Bleu mutual assistance commitment is intended to provide "cross-border cooperation in extensive crisis and emergency scenarios." Although the statement alludes to military conflict and cyberattacks, it leaves open the question of other service interruptions in the "dynamic geopolitical environment."

However, concerns have been raised about government interference with cloud provider services abroad. For example, [7]in February , the Trump administration announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague after he accused it of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." The court then ditched Microsoft Office for a European software alternative amid mounting fears about being reliant on US technology.

Meanwhile, IT leadership in Europe seems increasingly focused on cloud sovereignty. [8]A Gartner survey of CIOs and tech leaders in Western Europe has found 61 percent want to increase their use of local cloud providers amid global geopolitical uncertainty. Around half (53 percent) said geopolitics would restrict their use of global providers in the future. ®

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[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aR33qeR6HEa2fS2Yd-epYQAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/it_spending_europe/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/13/gartner_cio_cloud_sovereignty/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/07/microsoft_announces_strengthening_of_sovereignty/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/31/international_criminal_court_ditches_office/

[7] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11809908

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/13/gartner_cio_cloud_sovereignty/

[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/