Dive Brief:
- The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is now generally available for customers, marking the latest effort from cloud and infrastructure providers to give companies more control over their data. The cloud offering’s components exist entirely within the European Union where businesses face stringent regulatory requirements.
- AWS’ sovereign cloud infrastructure is divided into separate compute regions, ensuring a company’s content, customer-created metadata and configurations remain in the selected region. The cloud offering also includes its own identity and access management and billing system that operates independently in Europe.
- “We first announced our plans to build this new independent cloud infrastructure in 2023, and today it’s ready to meet the most stringent sovereignty requirements of European customers with a comprehensive set of AWS services,” Sébastien Stormacq, principal developer advocate at AWS, wrote in a blog post.
Dive Insight:
Vendors are racing to give enterprises sovereignty offerings to navigate European rules and regulations. At the same time, they’re setting themselves up to compete with local providers that might increasingly appear more attractive to businesses in those countries.
IBM launched Sovereign Core on Thursday, a platform that will allow companies to deploy cloud and AI workloads while maintaining operational control and authority. Meanwhile, SAP deployed its EU AI Cloud in December, letting customers choose the appropriate level of sovereignty to meet their operational needs.
Microsoft added new capabilities to its sovereign cloud offerings last year, while Google advanced its own sovereign cloud product, announcing in November the creation of a Sovereign Cloud Hub in Munich.
Largely U.S.-based cloud and infrastructure companies are pouring investments into sovereign offerings as businesses — particularly EU customers — are taking local data regulations, sovereignty issues, tariffs and other concerns into account, Dave McCarthy, research VP at IDC, told CIO Dive. European users might be considering local providers instead.
“The world that we live in is creating enough uncertainty, that [companies] want to make sure that things can continue to run and be protected in their own country or whatever jurisdiction they’re looking at,” McCarthy said.
The EU is implementing an AI continent action plan that includes building large-scale AI infrastructure and advancing the EU Cloud and AI Development Act to boost private investment in cloud and data centers. The action plan “explains how to harness the untapped potential of our researchers and industries,” according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch.
Google and Microsoft, among others, are also looking beyond the EU in the name of sovereignty. Last month, Microsoft committed billions to its technology investment in Canada, including an initiative to "keep Canadian data on Canadian soil." Meanwhile, Google said it plans to invest $15 billion over the next five years in India, a country that is emerging as a global tech hub. The company said in November it will expand local AI hardware capacity for its customers in India to ensure controls for "compliance and AI sovereignty."
Concerns regarding the geopolitical risks of storing and managing data in global cloud environments abound among business leaders, according to Kyndryl’s 2025 Cloud Readiness Report. Regulatory requirements including digital sovereignty regulations have driven 65% of executives to alter their cloud strategies, the report found.
