Amazon Web Services (AWS) today launched what it’s calling the European Sovereign Cloud, with the first region to open in Brandenburg, Germany expected to be ready for customers by the end of 2025.
This is a significant move that follows long-standing demands from governments and heavily regulated sectors in Europe for more elsewhere of control over their data.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be completely isolated from AWS’s current global infrastructure. Throughout, all functions — from data centres, to technical support, to customer service — will be performed solely by AWS employees resident in the EU.
This is also a commitment to use local certificates and networking equipment, so that the entire cloud stack will be kept under the biggest EU control possible.
This initiative is in reaction to tight data protection laws introduced by the European Union, including GDPR and Germany’s Federal Data Protection Act.
With a dedicated cloud infrastructure that is both physically and logically isolated, AWS will provide assurance over data residency, operational independence and resilience which is completely unmatched. Customers can maintain all of their data and metadata, including technical configurations, inside the EU.
AWS will create a new German-incorporated parent company and three subsidiaries to manage this business. AWS’s Vice President Kathrin Renz will serve as the first Managing Director of the German operation, and alongside a European Union leadership team with experience in government security and privacy. An independent oversight body consisting purely of EU citizens will further strengthen the governance and transparency.
The offering follows a large investment AWS made in September to the tune of €7.8 billion into the European Sovereign Cloud over the next 20 years.
The move is intended to be part of a broader effort by AWS to regain the trust of the European regulators and customers, having come under scrutiny in the past around the region due to concerns over data security and competition.
The consequences for EU data protection could be huge. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is also an effective choice Organisation’s need for this degree of data control and care is most prevalent in the public, governmental, healthcare and financial spaces.
It allows European organizations to bring high performance, lower costs, and more innovative services to the edge, with the security and peace of mind of operating under the safeguard of the EU’s strict business, privacy, and security requirements, supporting EU digital sovereignty within the EU.
