Amazon is rolling out an independent cloud for Europe as it looks to address strict regulations that companies and those in the public sector face in the European Union.
Amazon Web Services said Wednesday that its AWS European Sovereign Cloud, which will be located in and operate out of Europe, will have the same security, availability, and performance as existing AWS regions but will be separate from them. The cloud will let customers keep all metadata they create in the European Union and will have its own billing and usage metering systems.
“The AWS European Sovereign Cloud reinforces our commitment to offering AWS customers the most advanced set of sovereignty controls, privacy safeguards, and security features available in the cloud,” Max Peterson, vice president of Sovereign Cloud at AWS, said in a written statement.
Washington and Brussels were at odds in a yearslong battle over the safety of EU citizens’ data that tech companies store in the U.S. following revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Two earlier data transfer agreements were thrown out before the EU signed off this summer on a new framework that has an adequate level of protection for personal data, though European privacy campaigner Max Schrems has vowed to challenge it to the EU’s top court.
