Amazon is unveiling a specialized, autonomous cloud service for Europe, revealing the company’s efforts towards the creation of the “AWS European Sovereign Cloud,” designed for government entities and heavily regulated industries throughout Europe.
This latest move comes to address an expanding set of regulations in Europe, dictating the proper handling of individuals’ and companies’ data. Even in the absence of explicit regulations, businesses in various sectors, like healthcare and banking, have been cautious about fully embracing the cloud due to fears about how tech giants might leverage their data.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is presented as a “standalone cloud for Europe,” providing increased data residency controls for the public sector and heavily regulated industries. In essence, this enables existing and potential customers to maintain all their metadata within the EU borders, with AWS personnel outside the EU lacking operational influence over the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
According to Amazon’s statement, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be “physically and logically separate” from other AWS Regions. It will first launch with a dedicated region in Germany, open to all European customers.
With this move, Amazon is adding its name to the list of major tech companies unveiling a dedicated, independent cloud service for Europe. Google, the main cloud competitor to AWS, joined forces with Deutsche Telekom’s IT services and consulting subsidiary, T-Systems, over two years ago to provide a sovereign cloud for German organizations. Microsoft introduced its “cloud for sovereignty” last year, and Oracle followed suit earlier this year.
