Sovereign Cloud – Review of Google Cloud’s Product Update Announcements

In May 2025, Google Cloud expanded its sovereign cloud offerings to address increasing demands for data sovereignty and operational autonomy. It launched Google Cloud Air-Gapped, a fully isolated environment designed for sectors with stringent data security requirements, such as defense and intelligence. This solution operates without external network connectivity and is authorized to handle US government Top Secret data.

Google Cloud Dedicated, developed in partnership with Thales, a French leader in cybersecurity, offers region-specific services operated by local partners to meet national compliance standards, such as France’s SecNumCloud. The Google Cloud Data Boundary service expansion now offers customers granular control over data residency and access, complemented by the User Data Shield, which incorporates Mandiant’s security assessments to validate application security postures.

While these initiatives demonstrate Google Cloud’s commitment to offering flexible, secure, and compliant cloud solutions, challenges remain. These challenges include the limited geographic availability of certain services and complexities in integrating sovereign solutions with existing multi-cloud architectures. Enterprises must carefully assess these factors when considering Google Cloud’s offerings for their sovereignty objectives.