AWS, owned by Amazon, launched a new cloud service on Thursday based exclusively in Europe. It is responding to concerns among European users about the security of data provided mainly by US-based providers by offering an independent alternative on the old continent.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud data centers are physically and legally separate from the American company's other servers, according to the world's largest cloud service provider.
This will allow the cloud to continue operating even if the European Union were to be disconnected from the internet or the United States were to ban software exports, Michael Hanisch, chief technology officer at AWS Germany, told Reuters.
Europeans are increasingly looking for alternatives
Europeans are increasingly looking for alternatives to technologies dominated mainly by the United States because they are concerned about the legal access to data that US authorities have.
The Cloud Computing Act requires US-based providers to give authorities access to data, even if it is stored abroad.
Two other major US cloud service providers, Microsoft and Google (owned by Alphabet), are also competing for customers with increased data security requirements.
Upon request, Microsoft stores European customer data exclusively in data centers located on the Old Continent, while Google announced last year that it would invest €5.5 billion in German data centers.
A billion-euro investment
AWS Europe's first data center is being built in the German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, Hanisch said.
Amazon plans to invest more than €7.8 billion in Germany and other European countries.
Cloud storage will be secured by control mechanisms, sovereignty guarantees, and legal safeguards that meet the requirements of European governments and organizations for processing sensitive data, according to AWS.
The European AWS cloud will be operated and monitored by a German company whose governing bodies include EU citizens, and all employees will eventually be required to have EU citizenship, Hanisch added.
(reuters, im)