Cloud
AWS has vowed its new European sovereign cloud, launching later this year, will have “operational autonomy” and be run by a Germany-based corporate entity, as it joins other hyperscalers in seeking to demonstrate a degree of independence from potential US political interference.
The new AWS European Sovereign Cloud will meet the “stringent sovereignty needs of European governments and enterprises”, and be able to “continue operations indefinitely, even in the event of a connectivity interruption between [it] and the rest of the world” Amazon said.
Detailing the AWS European sovereign cloud’s governance ahead of its launch – and 18 months after AWS first promised to deliver a sovereign cloud for Europe – Amazon said on June 3 that it would be run by a new parent company and three subsidiaries incorporated in Germany.
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It also promised to launch a dedicated EU root Certificate Authority (CA), so that the key material, certificates, and identity verification needed for SSL/TSL certificates can all run autonomously within the sovereign cloud.
"The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will have no critical dependencies on non-EU infrastructure. Everything needed to operate the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is in the EU: the talent, the technology, the infrastructure, and the leadership. In addition to independent infrastructure, there will be zero operational control outside of EU borders" - AWS
The announcement comes amid widespread chatter in European policy circles about the risk of hyperscaler dependence being weaponised by an administration that is being sued by Harvard University for what the latter described in a late May suit as “blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.”
A month earlier Microsoft President Brad Smith emphasised that “we are… listening closely to the views of European governments and leaders. We recognize that European countries, like nations everywhere, need to have rock-solid confidence in the digital infrastructure on which they rely.”
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To support continuity “even under extreme circumstances, authorized AWS employees of the… Sovereign Cloud, who are EU residents, will have independent access to a replica of the source code needed to maintain the AWS European Sovereign Cloud services” AWS meanwhile promised.
It is also spinning up a dedicated European SOC.
Katherin Renz, former VP of AWS Industries and now the first managing director of AWS ESC, said the investment showed a “commitment to Europe’s digital future” and would “enable customers to accelerate innovation, while meeting their digital sovereignty needs.”
On a technical level, AWS ESC will also use networking infrastructure from solely European providers via AWS Direct Connect. When it comes to staffing, alongside the appointment of Renz, AWS said the entire management team of AWS ESC would be EU citizens living in the region overseen by a four-person independent advisory board, at least one of whom will be unaffiliated with Amazon.
In May, Google Cloud said it was expanding its sovereign controls to include air-gapped solutions alongside its data boundary options, and improve availability of Google Cloud Dedicated, a service operated by standalone entities in specific regions, currently available in France.
Microsoft also revealed it had completed creation of an EU Data Boundary for its cloud in February, allowing customers to store and process their data for its core services within the EU. European cloud providers meanwhile are on a tear: France-headquartered OVH Cloud’s share price has doubled since March and Germany’s STACKIT keeps adding services.