Amazon Web Services (AWS) has confirmed plans to launch a European sovereign cloud aimed at enhancing data residency in the region in order to address political concerns and regulations.
AWS, which accounts for around one-third of the cloud infrastructure market, revealed that it would establish its inaugural sovereign cloud region in Brandenburg, Germany.
AWS’s new region, which is set to be operational by the end of 2025, will receive €7.8 billion ($8.5 billion) in funding by 2040.
First AWS European sovereign cloud region
Moreover, AWS believes that its new region will add €17.2 billion ($18.6 billion) to the country’s GDP by 2040, supporting an average of 2,800 full-time jobs each year.
The announcement seems timed to highlight the significance of AWS’s commitment to the European market, which has seen the introduction of new measures and the launch of several antitrust investigations in recent months.
Max Peterson, Vice President of Sovereign Cloud at AWS, commented: “This investment reinforces our commitment to offer customers the most advanced set of sovereignty controls, privacy safeguards, and security features available in the cloud.”
By launching a European cloud, AWS customers will be able to ensure that their data remains within the EU, and that even AWS customers from outside the region will not be able to access data.
This segregation of the cloud addresses apprehensions surrounding data sovereignty and security across the continent. By creating a physically and logically separated cloud, European data will gain an extra layer of protection against potential attacks.
Mounting regulatory pressures and also competition from other key players in the industry drove Amazon to this point. Microsoft and Google, which together account for another third of the market, have launched their own sovereign cloud initiatives. Oracle has also followed suit.
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