Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled a new “independent cloud for Europe,” which it will call AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
AWS hopes the launch will be able to keep its public sector customers happy as returning customers by providing them with a solution designed to meet data residency and operational regulatory requirements.
The European version of its cloud will remain a physically and logically separate entity from existing AWS Regions while providing all of the same familiar AWS benefits.
AWS European data residency regulations
According to Amazon, only its EU-resident employees will be able to have any control over the operations and support for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Here, customers will be able to keep metadata like roles, permissions, resource labels, and configurations, without the risk of it being accessible in other regions.
AWS Sovereign Cloud VP Max Peterson said: “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 be able to use other services, like AWS Outposts and AWS Dedicated Local Zones, to deploy their European cloud infrastructure on-prem or on the edge as they wish.
Amazon said that its European Sovereign Cloud will offer multiple Availability Zones with infrastructure spread out across separate geographic locations, in order to minimize risks posed by events that could cause outages.
The AWS portfolio is made up of 102 Availability Zones across 32 geographic locations. Its European Sovereign Cloud will occupy eight AWS Regions in Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Milan, Pais, Stockholm, Spain, and Zurich.
As well as catering to the needs of European data sovereignty, Amazon says that its multibillion-euro investments across Europe will help to grow economies and create jobs. The company highlighted its commitment to hiring and developing local personnel to operate and support the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
While there's no word on general availability, it's clear that Amazon is making strides to remain competitive in the EU amid a growing number of antitrust cases and investigations.
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