Amazon Launches Its 'sovereign' Cloud in Europe

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is introducing a new cloud system specifically for Europe in an effort to ensure data remains totally under European control. The service was unveiled on January 14, 2026, and arrives as regulations in the region, calling for more stringent compliance around where data is stored and who can access it.

And the cloud has confounded many European governments and regulated businesses. They frequently were forced to decide between aging in-house systems or restrictive cloud services that failed to comply with local regulations. Amazon’s new cloud removes that headache, by providing a fully EU-law compliant cloud from beginning to end.

The new cloud operates only within the European Union. It's predominantly positioned in Brandenburg, Germany and it has several backup clusters within for power and network redundancy. This arrangement enables services to continue operating even if connections outside Europe are lost.

To give themselves local control of the cloud, Amazon made new legal entities under German law managing it. Leadership is based in Europe, and an oversight board that monitors data and governance issues is made up only of EU citizens.

All identity access, billing, and security systems are only within EU shorelines. Information like user roles and settings and resource details stays in the selected European region. These systems are supposed to be isolated from access from outside.

Amazon intends to expand the service throughout more EU countries, beginning with additional zones in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. Customers can also host portions of the system in their own data centers, when necessary.

The cloud would be equipped with the same security that is across Amazon’s platforms, such as encryption and strong isolation between systems. Independent audits establish that it complies with the most important worldwide and European security standards.

With this announcement, Amazon is also making a statement in terms of where its cloud will set itself apart: for European customers, preserving data locally is now just as important as speed and scale and reliability.