Amazon Web Services launched a new independent cloud service aiming to address European customer concerns around digital sovereignty last week. But while analysts believe it will help European customers meet regulatory compliance demands, there are questions around how much sovereignty it provides in practice.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud data center is located in Brandenburg, Germany, with plans for additional facilities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud provides access to 90 AWS services but is “physically and logically separate” from AWS’s existing public cloud Regions, the company said.
AWS established a new legal entity to operate the European Sovereign Cloud under a separate governance and operational model. The new company is incorporated in Germany and run exclusively by EU residents, AWS said. It operates under a governance structure led by EU citizens that are obligated to comply with European laws and, said AWS, the service has “no critical dependencies” on non-EU infrastructure and is designed to “continue operations indefinitely, even in the event of a communications disruption with the rest of the world.”
