Amazon Web Services launches its European sovereign cloud

BarcelonaThe battle for European technological sovereignty continues. Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on Thursday the launch of its sovereign European cloud (AWS). European Sovereign CloudAWS has announced plans to expand its European sovereign cloud presence from Germany across the EU, a new independent cloud for Europe located within the European Union (EU) and physically and logically separate from other regions where AWS operates, with core infrastructure based in Germany. According to a company statement, this is "the only fully functional sovereign cloud, operated independently and supported by robust technical controls, sovereignty guarantees, and legal protections designed to meet the sensitive data needs of European governments and businesses." AWS also announced plans to expand its European sovereign cloud presence from Germany across the EU to support stringent requirements for isolation, in-country data residency, and low latency. This will begin with what they call new AWS Sovereign Local Zones (AWS Local Zones). Sovereign Local ZonesLocated in Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands, AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure that allows customers to store their data in a specific geographic location to meet data residency requirements or run latency-sensitive applications. The new zones announced this Thursday will be part of the European sovereign cloud, extending sovereignty controls from Germany to the entire EU. This will give customers with stricter data independence or residency requirements the option to use AWS. Dedicated Local Zones, AWS AI Factories either AWS Outposts in locations they select, including their own local data centers.

Total independence

The company notes that AWS's global cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure has been "sovereign by design and provides customers with complete control over the location and movement of their data." In this regard, AWS emphasizes that the new cloud can continue to function even in an extreme scenario of disconnection between Europe and the rest of the global network or in the face of potential software export restrictions from the United States. According to them, it is designed to meet the needs of organizations with the most stringent data security and privacy requirements. In fact, most customers can meet their requirements using one of the six existing AWS Regions in the EU, as they are "sovereign by design." Furthermore, the AWS European sovereign cloud is designed to offer customers additional options for meeting the EU's stringent sovereignty requirements without compromising AWS capabilities.