Sovereign Cloud Excellence Award

Moving government workloads to the cloud is common. Doing it while keeping the data, the keys and the operating skill inside South Africa is not.

What this award recognises

Recognises public sector institutions that have deployed and adopted secure sovereign cloud environments.

Who may enter

South African departments, municipalities, state-owned companies and public entities.

What this award looks for

A working environment, in production, where the institution can say where its data resides, whether that is a sovereign cloud, its own data centre or SITA hosting, and who owns it.

How entries are judged in this category

• C1, the work. The cloud environment itself: what was deployed, how well it runs, how secure it is.
• C2, the difference it made. What it changed for the institution and the people it serves: services, availability, cost, speed, security.
• Sovereignty and control. Where the data resides: adoption within a sovereign cloud environment, within a local institution data centre, or SITA-hosted; and who owns it.

The three questions

• What did they do?
• What changed as a result?
• Where does the data sit, who controls it, and what can your own people now run without outside help?

If you have any of these, they will strengthen your entry

• A short description of the environment. A security assessment or accreditation, if you hold one. An uptime or service report.
• Service figures before and after. Numbers of users, workloads or departments now on it.
• Written confirmation of where the data sits. Certifications your own staff have earned running it.

One item proving the work is real is required. Email it to nominations@cut2black.co.za, with the award category and the name of the person or organisation you nominated in the subject line, at any time before 17:00 on 28 August 2026. Anything further on this list is welcome but not required.