Ending Sovereignty Washing: STACKIT Makes Digital Sovereignty Objectively Measurable with ES³

At the start of the Hannover Messe, STACKIT is presenting the European Sovereign Stack Standard (ES³). This new standard establishes, for the first time, a transparent and independently verified benchmark for true digital sovereignty in the cloud.

Although recent studies show that 82% of companies attribute their digital dependency to a lack of European alternatives, “sovereignty washing” often makes it difficult to objectively select suitable partners. With the ES³ program, based on the SML framework (Sovereignty Maturity Level), STACKIT now offers a tool that transforms sovereignty from a vague marketing promise into a measurable metric.

The SML Framework: Sovereignty in Nine Dimensions

At the core of ES³ is a four-stage maturity model that comprehensively evaluates IT services at the regulatory, organizational, and technical levels. In doing so, STACKIT adapts the eight dimensions of the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and supplements them with a ninth dimension critical to the future: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The benefits of ES³ at a glance:

• Objective comparability: Over 100 measurement criteria enable a precise classification of the sovereignty level from “Initial” to “Future-Proof.”
• Independent verification: To guarantee the highest level of trustworthiness, the framework was independently verified by the auditing firm BDO Germany.
• Operational usability: With tools such as the “ES³ Lens,” companies can assess their maturity level as early as the presales process and identify specific areas for optimization.

Sovereignty as a strategic competitive advantage

With the European Sovereign Stack Standard (ES³), STACKIT creates the necessary transparency to translate digital sovereignty from an abstract objective into an operational metric. For the first time, the framework offers companies and public authorities reliable guidance for designing their IT infrastructure to be independent, secure, and future-proof. This makes technological autonomy a tangible and planable component of every modern digital strategy.

Learn more about the ES³ program and calculate your individual maturity level now.