Amazon joins the list of big tech companies to introduce a dedicated standalone cloud for Europe, with the news that it is working on the “AWS European Sovereign Cloud” for governments and highly regulated industries across Europe.
AWS cloud rival Google partnered with T-Systems, Deutsche Telekom's IT services and consulting subsidiary more than two years ago to offer a sovereign cloud for German organizations, while Microsoft launched its “sovereign cloud” last year. And Oracle did the same earlier this year 2023.
While Amazon has always targeted European organizations with the promise of localized data storage and controls, it had previously distanced itself from the whole “sovereign cloud” concept. Stephen Schmidt, Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Amazon said that the sovereign cloud is “a marketing term more than anything else,” but last November AWS unveiled its “digital sovereignty commitment,” which goes some way to enshrining its cloud control commitments in stone. data.
Now, AWS is pulling out all the stops with more concrete commitments.
Data exploitation
At the heart of the issue is a growing set of regulations – particularly in Europe – that stipulate how people's and companies' data should be handled. Although even without specific regulation, companies in many industries (such as healthcare and banking) have been slower to commit to the cloud due to concerns about how tech giants could exploit their data.
And that's why the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is billed as an “independent cloud for Europe,” one that offers the public sector and highly regulated industries greater data residency controls. In short, this will allow current and potential customers to maintain all your metadata within the EU boundaries, and AWS employees outside the EU cannot exercise any operational control over the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. It will also have its own billing and usage measurement system.
In his adAmazon said the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be “physically and logically separate” from other AWS regions, initially starting with a dedicated region in Germany that will be available to all of its European customers. The company confirmed that this will not be limited specifically to the EU, and that organizations across the European continent (including the UK) will be able to access it.
While it was inevitable that Amazon would eventually launch a sovereign cloud, especially given its dominant market share and its major cloud rivals flaunting their own sovereign intelligence, many organizations are likely still willing to keep their data in-house on their own. infrastructure, or at least adopt a hybrid approach. That's why AWS already offers tools that bring the power of the cloud to enterprise data centers, such as AWS Outposts, which serve as a private cloud hardware stack that is physically installed on premises.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway elsewhere to bring a more cloud-native version to European markets: a Swedish startup called Evroc emerged quietly this year with €13 million in funding to develop centers hyperscale data in Europe.
AWS declined to confirm when its sovereign cloud could be being released, so this is still months or years away, it is impossible to say.
