Overview
- Amazon Web Services made the European Sovereign Cloud generally available, describing it as physically and legally separate from other AWS regions and able to operate independently if external links are cut or software exports are restricted.
- The first deployment is in Brandenburg, Germany, with plans to extend the footprint to Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal through new sovereign Local Zones.
- A German-incorporated company runs the service with EU-resident management and an advisory board, and AWS says all employees will ultimately be required to hold EU citizenship.
- The environment launches with about 90 services and keeps customer-created metadata, identity and access management, billing and metering within the EU, with EU-resident staff able to access a replica of necessary source code only in extreme circumstances.
- Amazon has committed more than €7.8 billion to the project through 2040, as EU authorities examine large cloud providers under the Digital Markets Act and experts warn U.S. laws like the CLOUD Act may still reach data held by American companies.