Sovereign procurement
criteria
Twelve questions. Run it once per vendor on your shortlist — including the incumbent, and including us.
Or print it: the same questions as a one-sheet PDFSovereign procurement criteria
Twelve questions across the five sovereignty tests — jurisdiction, keys, operating staff, disconnected mode, exit — plus whether the offer covers all four layers and whether each answer was demonstrated or asserted. Run it once per vendor on your shortlist. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
12 questions · 6 objectives · SEAL levels 0–4
- SP-1: Jurisdictionw20%
- SP-2: Keysw20%
- SP-3: Operating staffw15%
- SP-4: Disconnected modew15%
- SP-5: Exitw20%
- SP-6: Scope & evidencew10%
Takes 3–5 minutes. No sign-up required.
Disclaimer: this self-assessment is for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal or procurement advice, and has no legal binding effect. It records what a vendor answered; it is not a compliance determination.
Five tests, because the adjective is unfalsifiable
Data location is not jurisdiction. A data centre in Frankfurt operated by a non-EU parent answers to that parent's law — a “sovereign region” is a real-estate answer to a legal question. Each of these tests has a yes-or-no answer, and a vendor who answers with an adjective has answered.
The last one matters most: if any answer is a slide rather than a demonstration, you have your answer. And write the procurement so it increases competition rather than reducing it — four providers, not one. A shortlist with alternatives is leverage; a single winner is the next dependence.
Want to talk through the sheet?
Thirty minutes with a founder or architect — your sector, your perimeter, and a written next step, including “not us”.
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Whose law governs the operator — and which foreign statutes reach it?
Who generates, holds and revokes them — and can you, without asking?
Whose hands are on the admin plane, and is it in the contract?
What still works with the cable unplugged?
What leaves with you, in what format, at what cost — rehearsed when?
All four layers — and shown on a live system, or asserted on a slide?
Indicative, and based on what a vendor told you. The five tests carry the weight because they cannot be retrofitted after signature; scope and evidence is lighter, but a platform that answers for one layer is a different proposition however it scores elsewhere.
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