AWS introduces the European Sovereign Cloud: a solution where data is guaranteed to remain in the EU. The cloud offers a high level of independence, but there are limitations.

AWS wants to comply with data sovereignty rules in Europe and is therefore launching the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. This is a thoroughly European version of AWS, tailored to customers in, for example, highly regulated industries or cloud users who, for other reasons, absolutely want to keep all their data within the EU.

The AWS Sovereign Cloud will be separate from existing AWS Regions but offer the same performance, availability and security. AWS promises all of its cloud users to stay away from customer data, but metadata is also guaranteed to be protected under the Sovereign Cloud. In addition, operational support comes exclusively from the EU. For example, even a support call does not result in data being forwarded to the USA. Usage and billing monitoring is also carried out from Europe.

The solution is functionally almost identical to the classic AWS cloud. Customers can also use Sovereign Cloud in a hybrid context via AWS Outposts or AWS Dedicated Local Zones. The first region of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is released in Germany and is available to all European customers.

(Not) really sovereign

Whether the European Sovereign Cloud is really sovereign is controversial. In any case, AWS introduces very detailed and robust mechanisms to ensure the security of European data in the EU. Although the Sovereign Cloud is separate from the rest of the AWS cloud, AWS remains the owner. Amazon is headquartered in the USA and is subject to the Patriot Act. In an extreme case, the company would have to comply with a targeted request from the USA to share data, even if it is in the Sovereign Cloud. Gordon Thompson from Cisco explained this clearly at the time.

AWS competitor Microsoft, which is the market leader in our region with Azure, is also following this trend. Microsoft introduced it last year Cloud for sovereignty for the public sector and worked with local partners. In this way, Microsoft can really distance itself from the offer completely. In our country, the cloud provider for the service collaborated with Proximus. AWS goes less far, but introduces a service with extensive data sovereignty that can be sufficient for most cases.