Overview#
Legal requirement that data is subject to the laws of the country where it is stored. Affects cloud region choices, backup strategies, and vendor selection.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Data Sovereignty for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Data Sovereignty activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Data Sovereignty works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Data Sovereignty, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Data Sovereignty healthy.
- Map Data Sovereignty practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Data Sovereignty might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Data Sovereignty failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Data Sovereignty continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Data Sovereignty with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Data Sovereignty improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.