AWS launches its European Sovereign Cloud to meet the strictest data privacy and sovereignty requirements

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has begun to deploy its European Sovereign Cloud which will span from Germany to all European Union (EU) countries with infrastructure to meet the needs of organizations with the most extreme security and data privacy requirements, complying with EU sovereignty guidelines, in addition to offering new AWS Sovereign Local Zones in Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is a independent cloud designed for Europe operating exclusively located within the EU and that is physically and logically separated from the rest of the regions where the company offers these services.

This cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure provides customers with a complete control over the location and movement of your datasince it is supported by technical measures and operational controls that provide transparency. Additionally, it offers secure infrastructure without compromising cloud capabilities and performance.

In this sense, the technology company has detailed that, with its general availability, it will begin to expand the presence of the European Sovereign Cloud AWS from Germany to all EU countries, with the goal of “supporting strict requirements regarding isolation, in-country data residency and low latency.”

Specifically, the deployment will begin with new Sovereign Local Zones of AWS (AWS Sovereign Local Zones) located in Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. This is a type of infrastructure that allows clients store your data in a specific geographic location to meet data residency requirements or run “latency-sensitive” applications, as explained in a statement.

These new AWS Local Zones will be part of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. In this way, the company has assured that it will provide organizations more options for deploying cloud workloads with “the highest level of sovereignty and operational independence”, combined with AWS’s extensive portfolio of services.

In practice, organizations will be able to use Local Zones, AWS AI Factories, or AWS Outposts in locations they select, including their own on-premises data centers. As a result, access to “more robust” cloud and AI technology will help Europe “drive customers’ growth and AI ambitions,” as explained by the director of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud and digital sovereignty, Stéphane Israël.

“Customers want what best of both worlds“to be able to use AWS’s full portfolio of cloud and AI services while ensuring they can meet their strict sovereignty requirements,” he said, explaining that by building a European cloud, they are empowering organizations to “innovate with confidence” while maintaining control of your digital assets.

In this regard, the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of Spain, María González Veracruz, has also spoken, pointing out that this is an initiative “aligned with the digital transformation strategy of the Spanish Government”, since it considers the data governance as a “cornerstone for the development of reliable, useful, productive and ethical AI.”

All of this, with the objective of “guaranteeing the security, privacy and rights of companies and citizens in the digital environment,” Veracruz added.

MANAGED AND OPERATED IN EUROPE

AWS has ensured that everything necessary to operate the European Sovereign Cloud is in the EU, both the talent, the infrastructure and the leadership. Thus, based on comprehensive and layered controls, this cloud is operated exclusively by residents of the region and has no critical external infrastructure dependencies.

In addition, its operational autonomy also stands out because it has a unique design that allows continue operations indefinitely“even in the event of a disruption of communications with the rest of the world.” To do this, employees authorized to operate in this cloud will have independent access to a replica of the source code necessary to maintain these services.

Following this line, it has a complete data residencysince, in addition to providing customers with full control over where their data is stored, it also allows manage all the metadata you needsuch as permissions, resource tags or settings, completely from the EU. This also includes sovereign Identity and Access Management (IAM), billing and usage metering systems.

Regarding the technical and compliance controlsAWS has noted that the European Sovereign Cloud is powered by the Sistema AWS Nitrowhich provides “an industry-leading physical and logical security boundary” to enforce access restrictions on customer data. No one, including AWS employees, can access this information.

Along with this, the company also provides advanced encryptionservices key management and hardware security modules so customers can protect their content even further. Likewise, it has also been introduced AWS European Sovereign Cloud Sovereignty Reference Framework (ESC-SRF), which is validated to meet customer requirements.

Finally, the technology company explained that it has established a dedicated governance structure in Europe. This includes a new parent company and three local subsidiaries incorporated in Germany (GmbH) which, with European employees, is obliged to act in the best interests of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

Likewise, this matrix is ​​supported by a advisory board which will provide expertise in sovereignty matters, made up of three Amazon employees and two independent members, all of whom are European citizens.

CAPABILITIES OF THE NEW EUROPEAN SOVEREIGN CLOUD

In addition to all this, the company has emphasized how the expansion of the European Sovereign Cloud, with the new Sovereign Local Zones, represents an additional investment in new cutting-edge cloud and AI capabilities. This will help “support local economic growth, productivity and innovation“, as Amazon has assured.

This is because customers and partners who use this cloud will benefit from all the capabilities of AWS, including security, availability, performance, familiar architecture, APIs and security innovations, such as the aforementioned AWS Nitro System.

More specifically, this cloud will have more than 90 services in a wide variety of categories, such as AI, computing, databases, networks, security and storage. Thus, clients of various industries regulated companies, governments, healthcare, financial services, defense and aerospace, energy and telecommunications, will be able to “accelerate their innovation” while complying with data sovereignty requirements.

With all this, AWS has specified that customers in the public sector and “a wide variety of regulated industries across Europe” have already chosen the AWS European Sovereign Cloud as their provider of these services. Likewise, they have partners such as Accenture, Capgemini, Kyndryl y SAP, inter alia.