An introduction to AWS European Sovereign Cloud: Advancing data management and digital sovereignty in the EU
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is set to launch at the end of 2025.
In 2023, in an era of increasing regulatory scrutiny and evolving sovereignty requirements, AWS announced it was developing European Sovereign Cloud, a groundbreaking offering for European organisations. This significant infrastructure expansion represents AWS's commitment to provide European customers with "control without compromise" – offering the full power of AWS services while addressing the most stringent sovereignty requirements.
What is the AWS European Sovereign Cloud?
In AWS, customers have full control of their data and determine where their data is stored, how it’s stored and who has access to it. AWS European Sovereign Cloud represents a step forward in AWS's digital sovereignty strategy. Unlike traditional cloud infrastructure expansions, this is a separate and isolated cloud partition from commercial AWS Regions – designed specifically for European requirements.
The European Sovereign Cloud builds upon AWS's Digital Sovereignty Pledge, which focuses on 4 key pillars:
- Control over the location of your data
- Verifiable control over data access
- The ability to encrypt everything everywhere
- Resilience of the cloud
The first AWS Region of this sovereign cloud will be in Germany. It’s designed to help European public sector organisations and customers in highly regulated industries meet their evolving sovereignty needs.
What makes AWS European Sovereign Cloud valuable?
What sets the AWS European Sovereign Cloud apart is its comprehensive approach to sovereignty:
- European operational autonomy – Day-to-day operations – including data centre access, technical support and customer service – will be controlled by AWS personnel who are EU residents and located within the EU. This ensures European control over all operational aspects.
- Enhanced data residency – While existing AWS Regions already allow customers to control where their content is stored, the European Sovereign Cloud goes further by ensuring customer-created metadata (such as roles, permissions, resource labels and configurations) also remains within the EU.
- Sovereign-by-design infrastructure – The architecture features multiple Availability Zones, physically separated and isolated from existing AWS Regions, with separate in-Region billing, IAM and usage metering systems. The infrastructure is powered by the AWS Nitro System, providing the same security, availability and performance customers expect from AWS.
The key features of AWS European Sovereign Cloud are:
- Data residency – All data is stored and processed within the EU.
- Operational control – The cloud is managed by EU-based AWS employees.
- Encryption – Strong encryption measures protect data in transit and at rest.
- Compliance – Meets EU regulations including GDPR and sector-specific requirements.
- Isolated from AWS Commercial Regions – Separate IAM, Billing and Account structure. Also, from an AWS service perspective, it's isolated from other AWS Regions and services.
The benefits for managing data in the EU context
For organisations operating within the EU's regulatory framework, the European Sovereign Cloud offers significant advantages for data management:
- Regulatory compliance simplified – The architecture helps organisations demonstrate compliance with evolving EU regulations like GDPR, NIS2 and industry-specific requirements.
- Data sovereignty assurance – Both customer content and customer-created metadata remain within EU borders, addressing concerns about data jurisdiction and foreign access.
- Operational resilience – The independent infrastructure ensures continued operations even in scenarios of geopolitical disruption.
Don’t want to wait? You can start building for sovereignty on AWS now
While this represents a significant advancement to address European digital sovereignty concerns, also it requires a comprehensive multi-account cloud architecture and operating model to support stringent security and compliance requirements – before any workloads are moved.
Also, many organisations don't want to wait for the launch to reap. And there is a way to get started now: AWS Trusted Secure Enclaves - Sensitive Edition (TSE-SE) provides a robust foundation with a path to implement controls in an AWS European Sovereign Cloud partition when it’s launched.
TSE-SE is an AWS solution specifically designed for highly regulated workloads that require strict data protection and operational security. It implements infra-as-code-based reference architecture with:
- Enhanced encryption – Comprehensive encryption at rest and in transit with customer-controlled keys.
- Access controls – Rigorous isolation and access management throughout the technology stack.
- Network design and segmentation – Secure and isolated environments.
- Monitoring and auditing – Continuous surveillance and logging of all system activities.
- Compliance framework – Alignment with various regulatory requirements across industries.
The solution creates secure enclaves that offer workload isolation, encrypted compute and strict access controls while still allowing you to leverage AWS's scalability and innovation capabilities. TSE-SE provides a production-ready, high-security framework that can be implemented immediately, ensuring sovereignty requirements are addressed in commercial EU regions while you wait for the European Sovereign Cloud to launch.
Planning your sovereignty journey
We recommend a phased approach to address digital sovereignty requirements:
- Assessment – Evaluate which workloads require sovereign controls and understand applicable regulatory requirements and data classification (what is needed now vs in the future, what is dictated by law vs policy).
- Implementation – Deploy TSE-SE as a foundation for critical workloads with immediate sovereignty and classification needs, focusing on cloud operations
- Strategic planning – Develop a co-existence strategy for the European Sovereign Cloud when it launches
- Partner engagement – Work with vetted AWS partners to ensure expertise and experience so you hit the ground running
In summary...
- The AWS European Sovereign Cloud represents a significant advancement in addressing European digital sovereignty concerns. It delivers on AWS's promise of providing control without compromise – offering the same robust AWS capabilities while meeting evolving regulatory requirements.
- Solutions like TSE-SE offer a path to address immediate sovereignty requirements – and a path to deploy a foundation in the European Sovereign Cloud, too.
- As digital sovereignty continues to shape European cloud strategy, AWS's continued investment in sovereignty solutions demonstrates their commitment to the European market and understanding of its unique requirements. By leveraging these solutions, European organisations can maintain compliance while continuing to innovate and transform through cloud technology.
As an AWS Premier Tier Partner, Nordcloud brings substantial expertise to organisations navigating digital sovereignty challenges. With over 1,500 AWS projects delivered and more than 1,000 AWS certifications across our team, Nordcloud combines deep technical knowledge with practical and validated implementation experience in Europe.
Significantly, Nordcloud is both a TSE Vetted Partner and one of the launch partners for the European Sovereign Cloud. This dual designation uniquely positions us to guide you through immediate sovereignty challenges and preparation for the European Sovereign Cloud.
Our approach focuses on helping you maintain regulatory compliance without sacrificing cloud innovation. This expertise spans:
- Compliance assessments and gap analyses
- Security architecture design for regulated workloads
- Implementation of TSE-SE and other secure cloud foundations
- Strategic planning for European Sovereign Cloud
- Hybrid and multi-cloud sovereignty strategies including Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR)
Get in touch to discuss how we can help you plan for European Sovereign Cloud and enhance your data management.
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