In response to increasing apprehension among European clients regarding American hyperscalers,Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the creation of a new European association. This entity will be “backed by strong technical controls, sovereign assurances, and legal protections,” according to a report.The move comes as data sovereignty becomes a primary concern for European businesses when considering new cloud services.

the impetus for this shift stems from unease among European customers following the implementation of an unpredictable foreign policy,including tariffs and perceived threats to the sovereignty of Greenland and Canada. This has led to concerns about entrusting data to large U.S. technology firms.

AWS is establishing a new European organization with a locally controlled parent company and three subsidiaries incorporated in Germany, as part of its European Sovereign Cloud (ESC) rollout, scheduled for launch by the end of 2025. Kathrin Renz,an AWS Industries VP based in Munich,will spearhead the operation as the first managing director of the AWS ESC. Other leaders will include a government security official and a privacy official – all EU citizens.

The company stated that “AWS will establish an independent advisory board for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, legally obligated to act in the best interest of the AWS European sovereign Cloud. Reinforcing the sovereign control of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, the advisory board will consist of four members, all EU citizens residing in the EU, including at least one independent board member who is not affiliated with Amazon. The advisory board will act as a source of expertise and provide accountability for AWS European Sovereign cloud operations, including strong security and access controls and the ability to operate independently in the event of disruption.”

The AWS ESC is designed to ensure continuous operation, “even in the event of a connectivity interruption between the AWS European Sovereign Cloud and the rest of the world.” Authorized ESC staff, who are EU residents, will have independent access to a replica of the source code necessary to maintain services under “extreme circumstances.” The services will have “no critical dependencies on non-EU infrastructure,” with all staff, technology, and leadership based within Europe, according to AWS.

key features of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will feature its own dedicated Amazon Route 53, providing customers with a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS), domain name registration, and health-checking web services. “The Route 53 name servers for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will use only European Top Level Domains (TLDs) for their own names,” AWS added. Furthermore,”AWS will also launch a dedicated ‘root’ European Certificate Authority,so that the key material,certificates,and identity verification needed for Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security certificates can all run autonomously within the AWS European Sovereign cloud.”

“AWS will establish an independent advisory board…legally obligated to act in the best interest of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.”

The sovereign cloud will also be “supported by a dedicated European Security Operations Center (SOC), led by an EU citizen residing in the EU.” Though,the parent company “remains under American ownership and might potentially be subject to the Cloud Act,which requires U.S. companies to turn over data to law enforcement authorities with the proper warrants, no matter where that data is stored.”

Understanding Data Sovereignty