Overview
- The first region is live in Brandenburg with more than 90 services, and AWS says the environment is physically and logically separate from other AWS regions.
- Operations run under EU-incorporated entities staffed by EU residents with a transition toward EU‑citizens‑only personnel, led by Stéphane Israël with Stefan Hoechbauer as managing director.
- Customer‑created metadata, identity and access management, billing, and metering remain within the EU, and AWS says the cloud has no critical dependencies on non‑EU infrastructure.
- AWS states that EU‑resident staff can access replicated source code under extreme circumstances, and the cloud can continue operating if Europe is cut off from global networks or if U.S. software exports are restricted.
- Amazon has committed more than €7.8 billion through 2040 and plans sovereign Local Zones in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal as EU regulators probe major cloud providers under the Digital Markets Act and experts question exposure to the U.S. CLOUD Act.