Amazon Launches AWS European Sovereign Cloud

Amazon announced today that the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud infrastructure for European customers, is now generally available. A first AWS Region located in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, is now operational, and Amazon is already planning to expand its footprint across the EU.

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud was first announced back in October 2023, and it’s launching during a period of increased geopolitical tensions between the US and the EU. This separate cloud infrastructure is available for all AWS customers worldwide, but it’s targeting customers from the public sector and other organizations with strict sovereignty requirements.

Amazon guarantees that its AWS European Sovereign Cloud is physically and logically separate from the rest of its AWS regions, with redundant power and networking allowing its services to continue to work when connectivity with the rest of the world is interrupted. The infrastructure will also be operated exclusively by EU residents located in the EU.

Amazon also wants to reassure customers worried about data access from other parts of the world. “Technical controls built into the infrastructure prevent access to the AWS European Sovereign Cloud from outside the EU,” explained Sébastien Stormacq, Principal Developer Advocate at AWS.

Still, even though Amazon suggests that it may be technically impossible for the company to transfer data from the AWS European Sovereign Cloud to the US, there may be lingering concerns regarding the CLOUD Act. This federal law that passed in 2018 allows US law enforcement to require companies under US juridsiction to hand over data they control, even if that data is stored on servers outside the U.S.

AWS isn’t the first cloud provider to announce a “sovereign cloud” for EU customers. Oracle previously launched an EU Sovereign Cloud in 2023, followed by Microsoft’s EU Data Boundary and Google’s Sovereign Cloud last year. However, Amazon said that it’s planning to invest more than €7.8 billion in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud in Germany, and the company is planning to launch new sovereign local zones in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal.