European cybersecurity vendor Bitdefender has launched its Sovereign Acceleration Program, aimed at helping European organizations move to a fully EU-operated security solution. The program specifically targets organizations migrating away from non-EU-based cybersecurity vendors.
European cybersecurity vendor Bitdefender announced the launch of its Sovereign Acceleration Program on July 9, 2026, in Bucharest and Schwerte, Germany. The program allows European organizations to move to a data security and hosting solution operated entirely within Europe. Customer, configuration, and security data, along with telemetry and support information, are intended to remain inaccessible from outside the European Union at all times, and not to be transferred or processed elsewhere. For organizations seeking to migrate from a cybersecurity vendor not based in the EU, the program also includes a contract buyout and additional migration offers.
Bitdefender cites growing requirements for control over cross-border data flows, driven by geopolitical uncertainty and evolving compliance obligations, as the rationale for the program. Many European companies are currently reassessing their cybersecurity supply chains. According to an IDC QuickPoll from February 2026, 44 percent of respondents rated digital and AI sovereignty as “very important,” while 41 percent rated it as “extremely important.”
According to Bitdefender, pointing to a data center located within the EU is, on its own, insufficient for many vendors to demonstrate genuine data sovereignty, since the underlying platforms often remain subject to non-EU jurisdiction. In such cases, ultimate authority, supply chain, and operational control remain outside Europe — a practice increasingly referred to as “sovereignty washing.” For organizations subject to GDPR, NIS2, or DORA, this discrepancy can carry material consequences.
The technical foundation of the new program is the GravityZone platform, which combines endpoint protection (EPP), endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR), and cloud-native security functions across the supply chain. Bitdefender points to repeated recognition from independent testing institutes AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives in this context.
The program also includes Bitdefender’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, which provide continuous, analyst-supported threat monitoring. A version of these services delivered entirely within the EU is expected to become available over the course of the summer. It combines AI-based detection with manual review by security experts and is available around the clock.
Bitdefender describes three core components of the program: a path toward sovereign cybersecurity via a network of certified European cloud partners; alignment with regulatory requirements for organizations of varying sizes — including public administration, financial services, healthcare, education, critical infrastructure, energy providers, and manufacturing — with reference to GDPR, NIS2, DORA, and other country- or industry-specific regulations; and a contract buyout program that the company says is intended to reduce financial barriers to migration.
Andrei Florescu, President and General Manager of the Bitdefender Business Solutions Group, said that many cybersecurity vendors base their sovereignty claims solely on the presence of a European data center, while jurisdiction, operational control, and the supply chain remain outside Europe. He said the new program is intended to give organizations a framework in which data, infrastructure, platform, and expertise remain under EU control.
Julien Levrard, CISO at OVHcloud, added that genuine sovereignty requires resilient infrastructure and assurance that critical technologies and data remain governed by a European legal framework over the long term. He said the combination of OVHcloud’s sovereign cloud infrastructure with Bitdefender’s security technology is intended to help organizations across Europe strengthen cyber resilience while retaining control over their data and operations.
Bitdefender places the new program within a broader set of earlier steps in the area of European data sovereignty, including partnerships with OVHcloud in France and secunet in Germany. The company says further information about the Sovereign Acceleration Program is available on request.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de