Amazon launches Europe-based cloud service to address data-sovereignty concerns

By Hakan Ersen

FRANKFURT, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Amazon’s cloud unit AWS on Thursday launched a service hosted entirely in Europe, aiming to reassure customers worried about data security under U.S.-based providers by offering what it calls an independent European alternative.

AWS said the European Sovereign Cloud’s data centres are both physically and legally separate from the company’s other global infrastructure. The setup is designed to keep the service running even if the European Union is cut off from the wider internet or if the U.S. bars software exports, AWS Germany Chief Technology Officer Michael Hanisch told Reuters.

EUROPEAN USERS SEEK ALTERNATIVES

Europeans are increasingly seeking alternatives to U.S.-dominated technology as concerns grow over the access authorities can obtain to data. Transatlantic trust has deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term, with new social media screening rules for foreign visitors and visa bans on anti-disinformation campaigners signalling a more interventionist digital stance.

These shifts have heightened worries around the 2018 Cloud Act, signed by Trump in his first term, which requires U.S. companies to hand over data to American authorities even when the information is stored overseas.

A survey by German digital association Bitkom found that two-thirds of companies see having a data centre located in Europe as a decisive factor when choosing a cloud provider. Eighty-two percent want more competitive European options.

Digital sovereignty does not mean isolation, but “real choices,” said German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger at the launch event, adding that Europe needed to evolve from being a customer to a co-developer.

Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google, the other two major U.S. cloud providers, also offer services geared toward customers with heightened data-security needs. Microsoft says it stores European customers’ data only in Europe upon request, while Google last year announced 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) of investments in German data centres.

INVESTMENT OF MORE THAN 7.8 BILLION EUROS

AWS’ first European Sovereign Cloud data centre is being built in the German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, Hanisch said. Additional centres are planned across Germany and other European countries, backed by more than 7.8 billion euros of investment.

The cloud will feature controls, sovereignty guarantees and legal protections tailored to European government and corporate requirements for handling sensitive data, AWS said. It will be operated and monitored by a German company whose management and advisory board are staffed by EU citizens, and all employees will eventually be required to hold EU citizenship, Hanisch added.

AWS has not set a customer target for the service, he said.

($1 = 0.8579 euros)

(Reporting by Hakan Ersen. Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke. Writing by Miranda Murray. Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter)