Digital and data sovereignty are rising sharply on the agenda.
Particularly in the EU and UK, driven by regulations like DORA and NIS2… and perhaps a sense that old assumptions on global alliances and shared infrastructure may need to be reconsidered.
Organizations are also waking up to the control they’ve surrendered to infrastructure providers.
And it’s not just about the public cloud. We increasingly need to exercise control over our data and workloads no matter where they are located.
And at this point, can we really expect to repatriate all of our data and workloads?
How much functionality and convenience would we have to give up to achieve that? Can we even achieve that? Would the inconvenience and disruption be accepted?
Probably not. Which begs the questions:
Daniel Shiu, Cryptography Consultant at Arqit, describes the end goal like this:
“Good data sovereignty means being able to store data on third party infrastructure encrypted with keys you alone control, with strong assurance that providers can’t bypass that, and the ability to protect data not only at rest and in transit but also during processing.”
Fortunately, this is possible. In fact, we can share three examples where quantum-safe security has been implemented successfully in demanding, real-world environments.
Let’s start with one of the most performance-intensive environments going: telcos.
Arqit and Sparkle demonstrated quantum resilient data transmission for optical networks over Sparkle’s metropolitan optical ring in Athens, protecting a high-capacity network segment without harming performance.
Basically, the QSI initiative combines Arqit’s encryption tech with Sparkle’s infrastructure. It enables Zero Trust-compliant connectivity between any two points… and it’s fully quantum-safe.
Some of the highlights include:
You can read all about it here.
Warfighting networks require serious security while retaining maximum performance and flexibility.
Integrating post-quantum cryptography is a high priority, as Roberta Faux, US Head of Cryptography and Field CTO at Arqit, explains:
“Encryption must be part of the weapon or system design from the outset, not like plumbing wrapped around it later. The modern battlespace is full of drones, autonomous sensors, soldier worn devices, and AI at the edge. All of this demands lightweight, agile suites of crypto solutions.”
But it’s not the only requirement. Military organizations need:
Intel, Equus, and Arqit have created the first quantum-safe architecture for secure mobile access to classified data. It allows fully secure communications between military devices and hardware, even on untrusted networks.
The solution uses NSA’s Mobile Access Capability Package (MACP) and CSfC Enterprise Gray architecture, with symmetric key encryption that doesn’t rely on hardware devices, and doesn’t require extra network and device resources.
It looks like this:
The key components are:
The CSfC-compliant MACP solution described here is quantum-safe, operationally scalable, and suitable to secure confidential military data in transit anywhere in the world.
You can read more about it here.
So that’s infrastructure and the military covered. What about a typical organization that wants to keep using public cloud infrastructure… but reclaim its digital sovereignty?
An organization like this needs three things:
The first two points are straightforward. They can be achieved using quantum-resistant cryptography and, say, an IPsec VPN tunnel. There are various ways to do this, but being biased, we’d suggest our own SKA-Platform and NetworkSecure.
The third point hasn’t previously been possible.
However, Intel and Arqit have developed a solution that allows any organization to tick all three boxes while remaining easily scalable and without increasing latency.
It has two components:
The end result: even if data is observed, stored, exfiltrated, or otherwise compromised by anyone, it will remain safely encrypted even in a post-quantum world.
Here’s what the solution looks like:
All data is encrypted at all times, and encryption keys are never visible to the cloud host. The solution is also high-performance, so it’s functionally invisible to users. That means any organization can get complete data and digital sovereignty… without repatriation.
You can read all about it here.
These are just a few ways that modern encryption can be deployed to secure data and workloads in the real world. This stuff is no longer theoretical. It’s in use right now to solve problems and protect data and assets in complex, fast-moving, and critical environments.
To discuss how we can help solve your security challenges, get in touch.
10 February 2026