Amazon Net Companies (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, is forming a new parent company and three subsidiaries in Germany as a part of a sovereign cloud the corporate is launching within the European Union.
AWS VP Kathrin Renz will function managing director of AWS’ German company guardian, which can even be led by EU-based “authorities safety and privateness official[s],” in accordance with Amazon. The German firm will oversee the aforementioned new sovereign cloud, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, which is scheduled to launch by the tip of 2025.
“The whole lot wanted to function the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is within the EU,” wrote AWS in a blog post. “Along with unbiased infrastructure, there will likely be zero operational management exterior of EU borders; solely AWS staff, residing within the EU, will management day-to-day operations, together with entry to information facilities, technical help, and customer support for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.”
A rising variety of tech giants and cloud suppliers, together with Amazon rivals Microsoft and Google, supply European sovereign cloud, or information residency, applications. These assist clients adjust to European native privateness and information safety legal guidelines just like the GDPR and Germany’s Federal Information Safety Act.
AWS introduced in Might 2024 that it will make investments €7.8 billion (roughly $8.8 billion) to construct the AWS European Sovereign Cloud in Germany by means of 2040, with the primary cloud “area” to go reside within the State of Brandenburg.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will function infrastructure positioned inside the EU and operated independently from AWS’ present cloud computing areas, in accordance with Amazon. Prospects utilizing it will likely be in a position to preserve their information and metadata — together with the configurations they use to run AWS — within the EU to adjust to relevant legal guidelines and rules, Amazon says.
Along with the brand new company presence in Germany, AWS says that it’s establishing an advisory board made up of EU residents and a devoted European safety operations heart.
“[W]e’ve designed the AWS European Sovereign Cloud to handle European digital sovereignty necessities whereas sustaining the providers portfolio, safety, reliability, and efficiency that clients count on from AWS,” Renz stated in an announcement. “Our funding within the AWS European Sovereign Cloud reinforces our dedication to Europe’s digital future.”
Amazon has discovered itself within the crosshairs of European regulators earlier than for failing to adjust to EU competitors and information privateness guidelines.
In 2021, Luxembourg’s information watchdog slapped Amazon with a then-record €746 million (round $849 million) advantageous for allegedly processing consumer information for focused promoting with out searching for individuals’s consent. And in 2022, AWS settled an EU antitrust probe into the way it allegedly abused rivals’ gross sales information to unfairly favor its personal merchandise.