Amazon Web Services Launches Independent European Cloud as Calls for Data Sovereignty Grow

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The AWS Sovereign Cloud will likely be bodily and logically separate from different AWS clouds and has been designed to adjust to Europe’s stringent knowledge legal guidelines.

The Amazon Web Services logo in front of a server room.
Image: Stack Commerce

Amazon Web Services has launched an unbiased cloud for Europe designed for public sector prospects and corporations working in extremely regulated industries throughout the European Union. The AWS Sovereign Cloud will function each “physically and logically” separate from AWS’s present cloud areas and has been engineered particularly to satisfy the information residency and regulatory necessities of European prospects.

The new service will provide European prospects extra granular management over their knowledge in addition to better operational autonomy, with a key aspect being that solely Europe-based Amazon personnel will be capable of handle and supply assist for the platform.

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will launch its first supported area in Germany and will likely be accessible to all European AWS prospects; AWS didn’t provide a precise timeline for the rollout.

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Europe’s push for knowledge sovereignty

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will allow European prospects to maintain all their metadata throughout the EU and can even include its personal billing and utilization metering programs, AWS mentioned.

The launch comes because the EU makes a concerted push in the direction of “data sovereignty,” whereby knowledge belonging to European firms and residents stays beneath the EU’s jurisdiction and conforms to the bloc’s strict knowledge safety requirements.

This consists of the General Data Protection Regulation, Europe’s foremost knowledge privateness and safety laws that mandates stringent controls over the gathering, storage and processing of private knowledge belonging to EU residents.

DOWNLOAD: EU GDPR Compliance Checklist from TechRepublic Premium

“The AWS European Sovereign Cloud reinforces our commitment to offering AWS customers the most advanced set of sovereignty controls, privacy safeguards, and security features available in the cloud,” Max Peterson, vp of Sovereign Cloud at AWS, mentioned in a press launch.

“With this new offering, customers and Partners across Europe will have more choice to achieve the operational independence they require, without compromising on the broadest and deepest cloud services that millions of customers already know and use today,” famous Peterson within the press launch.

AI and shift to public cloud exacerbate knowledge issues

As companies shift extra of their operations to public cloud platforms, the EU has turn into more and more involved in regards to the storage of delicate knowledge on servers managed by non-European entities, in addition to the dominance of sure U.S.-based firms in Europe’s cloud market.

The want for some cloud features to switch knowledge out and in of the EU has heightened these issues, significantly the notion that entities exterior of the EU is likely to be gaining unauthorized entry to knowledge belonging to European prospects.

In an identical vein, the EU can be looking for to push by way of complete laws round the adoption and use of synthetic intelligence in Europe in an effort to maintain tabs on how knowledge is gathered and utilized by AI programs and defend residents towards probably dangerous results.

Tech giants pressured to appease EU policymakers

AWS isn’t the primary huge tech firm to launch a cloud service designed to appease the information issues of EU regulators and policymakers, who’re placing stress on U.S.-based tech and software program giants to evolve with Europe’s new Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.

Last 12 months, Microsoft launched Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, an built-in cloud service designed for public sector prospects with region-specific knowledge governance necessities, with EU prospects in thoughts.

Microsoft additionally introduced a set of European Cloud Principles in May 2022 in response to issues and criticisms relating to its software program licensing practices, by which it affirmed its “focus on providing cloud offerings that meet European government sovereign needs in partnership with local trusted technology providers.”

Likewise, Salesforce launched its considerably elaborately named Hyperforce EU Operating Zone in March 2023. This is a cloud platform for firms working beneath EU rules that require stricter controls over the entry, management and use of their knowledge.

Cybersecurity businesses welcome EU cloud independence

AWS prospects and companions which have signed up for the devoted cloud embrace a variety of German authorities businesses, together with the German Federal Office for Information Security and German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, in addition to the Czech Republic’s National Cyber and Information Security Agency, the National Cyber Security Directorate of Romania, software program firm SAP and the skilled providers and consulting outfits Accenture and Deloitte.

Tomas Krejci, deputy director of the NÚKIB, mentioned within the press launch that the subject of information sovereignty and residency was “at the forefront of European and national security debates” and that the launch of an unbiased European cloud would “provide more heavily regulated organizations, such as those in the public sector with an eye on evolving regulation, more choice in their digital sovereignty strategy.”

Meanwhile, Dan Cimpean, director of Romania’s National Cyber Security Directorate, mentioned within the press launch the AWS European Sovereign Cloud would “help public and private organizations (in) navigating stringent regulatory requirements to accelerate their transition to the cloud while improving innovation and data security for the benefit of European citizens.”

Customers with particular wants for knowledge isolation and in-country residency will be capable of make extra use of AWS Outposts and AWS Local Zones, AWS mentioned.

AWS Outposts convey AWS providers on to on-premises places, making certain constant operations between native and cloud environments, whereas AWS Local Zones are specialised setups positioned in customer-chosen places that cut back the complexity of managing on-premises infrastructure.

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