BT International is working with Schwarz Group’s StackIT on the latter’s sovereign cloud platform.

Under the partnership, StackIT’s EU sovereign cloud will become accessible to multinational customers with operations in the EU while complying with regulations.

BT will provide Internet connectivity (peering) to the sovereign cloud, and later complement this with private connectivity delivered via BT’s Global Fabric network-as-a-service (NaaS).

This will enable organizations to access the StackIT cloud platform from outside the EU via a private sovereign connection rather than using the public Internet.

The cloud platform is based out of StackIT’s data centers located in Europe. The company has four data centers including DC01 in Neckarsulm, Germany; DC 08 in Ellhofen, Germany; and DC 10 in Ostermiething, Austria, and is building a fifth data center in Lübbenau, Germany.

Ghoutam Banerjee, director partner ecosystem & growth, StackIT, said: “Through our partnership with BT, we are creating a groundbreaking connection for digital sovereignty. Together, we are enabling multinational corporations to access our sovereign StackIT Cloud directly from locations outside the EU via a private sovereign connection. This integration not only strengthens our customers’ operational resilience but also guarantees full compliance with European data protection standards, while ensuring that data remains securely within EU borders.”

Joris van Oers, chief commercial officer at BT International, added: “Sovereignty is top of mind for our customers — data sovereignty and both operational and technical sovereignty too. CIOs want resilient networks and IT systems to keep their businesses running, regardless of trade policy changes, global outages or natural disasters. We’re partnering with StackIT to provide customers operating in Europe with trusted access to sovereign and resilient cloud services. It’s a powerful example of why BT is the global leader in secure multi-cloud connectivity.”

The company was launched in May 2022 by Schwarz Group – the parent company of the well-known shopping chain Lidl – and aimed to create a European cloud solution in Germany. In 2024, it revealed that it was provided sovereign cloud storage services to Google Cloud customers.

Earlier this year, StackIT’s sovereign cloud platform was selected to be one of the providers for the European Commission’s €180 million ($212m) sovereign cloud services contract.

BT’s Global Fabric NaaS providers peering services to the likes of AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. Its network spans some 140 global locations, with two points of presence per metro area, and can scale according to evolving traffic demands.

BT International was launched in June 2025 by parent company BT Group. At the time, it was said that the unit would focus heavily on AI and cloud opportunities, including the company’s Global Fabric, an AI-ready, cloud-centric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. Global Fabric launched to live traffic earlier this year.