VMware recently announced that it is adding several new partners to its Sovereign Cloud Initiative, along with several new cloud-native developer-centric capabilities.

The initiative strengthens VMware’s ability to address the needs of enterprises from regulated industries to meet their unique sovereign cloud requirements, observes GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that those requirements encompass data sovereignty and jurisdictional control, data access and integrity, data security and compliance, data independence and mobility, and data analytics and innovation.

Chris Drake, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “VMware’s Sovereign Cloud Initiative, first announced at VMworld in October 2021, is gaining momentum, with the addition of four new partners (bringing the total to 14) illustrating its growing popularity and potential. With this latest announcement, VMware is also making VMware Tanzu Application Platform and VMware Tanzu Data Services available to its Sovereign Cloud partners, a move that will help them expand the tools and capabilities they are able to offer application developers.”

By expanding the range of infrastructure services and developer tools and capabilities available to its Sovereign Cloud partners, VMware is empowering and equipping trusted national or regional cloud service providers – including leading telecoms network operators – bolstering their ability to offer a credible alternative to the cloud service offerings of the hyperscale and other global cloud service providers. The initiative therefore has potential to help VMware and its Sovereign Cloud partners steal enterprise cloud customers from companies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Drake adds: “An additional potential benefit of VMware’s Sovereign Cloud Initiative relates to enterprise environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. Some of those commitments are directly shaped by the laws, regulations, and standards of the political jurisdiction in which enterprises are based or operate. Because of this, locally based sovereign cloud providers are increasingly being seen as having an advantage over large international cloud providers because of their familiarity with local laws and regulations.”