Opening the AWS European Sovereign Cloud | AWS News Blog (opens in new tab)

AWS has officially launched the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, a specialized infrastructure designed to meet the rigorous data residency and operational autonomy requirements of European public sector organizations and highly regulated industries. This new offering provides a fully featured cloud environment that is physically and logically separate from existing AWS Regions, ensuring all data and metadata remain entirely within the European Union. By bridging the gap between legacy on-premises security and modern cloud innovation, AWS enables sensitive workloads to operate under strict European jurisdiction and independent governance.

Strategic Independence and Operational Control Organizations in the EU often face complex regulatory hurdles that prevent them from using standard public cloud offerings, frequently forcing them to remain on aging on-premises hardware. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud addresses these challenges through:

• Independent Operations: The infrastructure is operated independently from other AWS Regions, providing a distinct management layer specific to the EU.
• Enhanced Sovereignty Controls: Robust technical controls and legal protections are integrated to ensure that data remains under European jurisdiction.
• Governance Autonomy: The cloud is built to provide European entities with full control over their data residency and operational transparency.

Independent Infrastructure and Regional Presence The architecture is designed for high availability and resilience, ensuring that mission-critical services remain functional regardless of external connectivity.

• Initial Region: The first region is now generally available in Brandenburg, Germany, serving as the primary hub for the sovereign infrastructure.
• Redundancy: The infrastructure utilizes multiple Availability Zones with redundant power and networking to maintain continuous operation.
• Isolated Connectivity: The design allows the cloud to continue operating even if connectivity to the rest of the global AWS network is interrupted.

Expansion and Hybrid Deployment Options To support the diverse needs of EU member states, AWS is expanding the footprint of this sovereign infrastructure through localized hardware and edge services.

• Sovereign Local Zones: Future expansion plans include new Local Zones in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal to provide low-latency access within specific borders.
• Hybrid Integration: Customers can extend sovereign infrastructure to their own data centers using AWS Outposts or AWS Dedicated Local Zones.
• Advanced Capabilities: The platform supports specialized workloads through AWS AI Factories, allowing regulated industries to leverage artificial intelligence within a sovereign boundary.

For European organizations navigating strict compliance landscapes, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud provides a viable path to digital transformation. Decision-makers should evaluate their current on-premises or restricted cloud environments to determine how these new sovereign regions and local zones can fulfill upcoming data residency mandates while providing access to advanced cloud-native services.