Amazon, a global company best known for its online retail, but also specialized in other technological services, has announced that it will launch a European cloud through Amazon Web Services (AWS). The so-called AWS Sovereign Cloud is intended for the European public sector, primarily for governments and public companies, but also for clients in highly regulated industries.
Servers and Employees from the EU
According to the announcement on Amazon’s website, the cloud will store data on servers that are exclusively and only ‘located in the European Union, and only AWS employees residing in the EU will have control over operations and provide support.’ This specifically means that, as explained by a source from Lider in the IT sector, AWS’s business in Europe is separated, at least on paper, from its operations in the US and that this move is intended to appease European regulators, while also laying the groundwork for potential contracts with numerous European states and state companies in the EU.
As with existing AWS regions, users will have control and assurance, AWS explains, that the company will not access or use user data for any purpose without the client’s consent.
– For more than a decade, we have worked with governments and regulatory bodies across Europe to understand and meet the growing needs in cybersecurity, data privacy, and localization, and recently digital sovereignty. With this new offering, customers and partners across Europe will have more choices to achieve the operational independence they need, without compromising on the broadest and deepest cloud services that millions of our users already know and use today – emphasized Max Peterson, Vice President of Sovereign Cloud at AWS in a statement published on Amazon’s website.
