Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced a dedicated cloud offering for Europe, referred to as AWS European Sovereign Cloud. This launch is aimed at meeting the data residency and operational regulatory needs of its public sector clientele.
The European variant of AWS cloud will maintain a physical and logical separation from existing AWS Regions while delivering the familiar advantages of AWS services. Amazon has specified that only its employees residing in the EU will have control over the operations and support for AWS European Sovereign Cloud. This setup ensures that customers can manage metadata, such as roles, permissions, resource labels, and configurations, without the risk of it being accessible in other regions.
Max Peterson, Vice President of AWS Sovereign Cloud, stated, “For more than a decade, we’ve worked with governments and regulatory bodies across Europe to understand and meet evolving needs in cybersecurity, data privacy and localization, and more recently, digital sovereignty.”
Customers will also have the option to utilize additional services like AWS Outposts and AWS Dedicated Local Zones to deploy their European cloud infrastructure either on-premises or on the edge.
Amazon has designed the AWS European Sovereign Cloud to include multiple Availability Zones located across separate geographic regions, thereby minimizing the potential risks associated with events that could lead to service interruptions.
The AWS ecosystem encompasses 102 Availability Zones spread across 32 geographic locations. AWS European Sovereign Cloud will be present in eight AWS Regions spanning Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Spain, and Zurich.
In addition to addressing European data sovereignty requirements, Amazon is emphasizing its commitment to investing in Europe. The company intends to foster economic growth and job creation by hiring and nurturing local talent to operate and support AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
While the exact date of general availability is yet to be announced, it’s evident that Amazon is taking steps to remain competitive in the European Union, especially in light of the increasing number of antitrust cases and investigations.
