Cloud computing and artificial intelligence are changing how companies organise their operations. As businesses become increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure, cybersecurity is no longer the only concern. Companies also need to know where their data is stored, which jurisdiction applies to it and whether it can be moved easily to another provider. Experts speaking at the Economic Forum in Karpacz argue that these issues are becoming central to digital resilience.
Marcin Kubit, Director of B2B Marketing and Sales at Play, told Newseria that telecommunications, IT and cybersecurity are increasingly converging. Software-defined infrastructure, cloud services and connected systems mean that companies can no longer treat these areas as separate layers.
The shift is visible in the data. According to the 2026 report on Poland’s SME sector prepared by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development using, among other sources, Statistics Poland data, the share of Polish companies using cloud services increased from 7.3% in 2015 to 54.9% in 2025. Among large companies, adoption exceeds 86%.
A PwC report on cloud use in business found that 27% of Polish companies assessed their cloud maturity as high in 2025, while 47% described it as medium. Almost one in three businesses plans further cloud implementations.
Artificial intelligence is also spreading. PARP data based on Statistics Poland figures show that 8.7% of companies used AI in 2025, up 2.8 percentage points from 2024. Adoption was much higher among large enterprises, at 42%, and in the information and communication sector, at 37.8%.
Security becomes a condition for scaling digital business
During a panel on cybersecurity at the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Play representatives argued that digital resilience is increasingly a prerequisite for growth and customer trust. The key question for companies is no longer whether to use cloud computing and AI, but how to do so while retaining control over data and infrastructure.
Kubit said that more and more business data is stored outside companies’ own systems and entrusted to third-party providers. That makes data sovereignty a practical issue covering physical location, legal jurisdiction and the ability to recover or transfer information when changing suppliers.
The challenge is amplified by the growing number of devices connected to corporate networks. Access is no longer limited to employees working from offices or remotely. Internet of Things systems increasingly exchange data with business infrastructure, enlarging the attack surface and increasing the need for continuous monitoring.
KPMG’s “Cybersecurity Barometer 2026” found that 96% of surveyed companies experienced at least one security incident in 2025, 13 percentage points more than a year earlier. The number of companies reporting multiple incidents also increased.
Data sovereignty has three main dimensions
According to Kubit, companies should look at three factors when evaluating cloud services. The first is location: where the data is physically stored. The second is jurisdiction: which legal system governs access to that data. The third is portability: whether information can be transferred efficiently to a different environment if the company changes provider.
This debate has become more important because the global cloud market is dominated by US companies. Synergy Research Group data for the second quarter of 2026 put Amazon, Microsoft and Google at roughly 28%, 20% and 15% of the global market respectively.
For European companies and public institutions, this raises questions about how to combine the scale and capability of global cloud platforms with requirements for local control, regulatory compliance and strategic autonomy.
Play argues that data sovereignty should not mean abandoning public cloud services or locking businesses into one environment. Instead, companies should consciously assess where their information is stored, what law applies and how easily they can move it.
European cloud services gain strategic importance
Geopolitical tensions have added momentum to the idea of a European cloud. Play is developing cloud services with Scaleway, another company in the iliad Group. The companies announced a strategic partnership in April 2025 aimed at accelerating public cloud and AI adoption in Poland.
In April 2026, the European Commission selected Scaleway, together with three other European providers, to deliver sovereign cloud services to EU institutions. According to Play, this gives its customers access to technology designed to meet European requirements on digital sovereignty and data security.
Kubit said that while companies often use similar technological building blocks, their needs differ substantially. Cybersecurity and sovereignty requirements look different for central government, local authorities and private businesses, which means solutions have to be adapted to specific risk profiles and regulatory obligations.
Source: Newseria Biznes.
