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Title: AWS Forms EU-Based Cloud Unit As Customers Fret

Link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/03/2024222/a...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: In a nod to European
customers' growing mistrust of American hyperscalers, Amazon Web Services
says it is establishing a new organization in the region "backed by strong
technical controls, sovereign assurances, and legal protections." Ever since
the Trump 2.0 administration assumed office and implemented an erratic and
unprecedented foreign policy stance, including aggressive tariffs and threats
to the national sovereignty of Greenland and Canada, customers in Europe have
voiced unease about placing their data in the hands of big U.S. tech
companies. The Register understands that data sovereignty is now one of the
primary questions that customers at European businesses ask sales reps at
hyperscalers when they have conversations about new services. [...] AWS is
forming a new European organization with a locally controlled parent company
and three subsidiaries incorporated in Germany, as part of its European
Sovereign Cloud (ESC) rollout, set to launch by the end of 2025. Kathrin
Renz, an AWS Industries VP based in Munich, will lead the operation as the
first managing director of the AWS ESC. The other leaders, we're told,
include a government security official and a privacy official - all EU
citizens. The cloud giant stated: "AWS will establish an independent advisory
board for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, legally obligated to act in the
best interest of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Reinforcing the sovereign
control of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, the advisory board will consist
of four members, all EU citizens residing in the EU, including at least one
independent board member who is not affiliated with Amazon. The advisory
board will act as a source of expertise and provide accountability for AWS
European Sovereign Cloud operations, including strong security and access
controls and the ability to operate independently in the event of
disruption." The AWS ESC allows the business to continue operations
indefinitely, "even in the event of a connectivity interruption between the
AWS European Sovereign Cloud and the rest of the world." Authorized ESC staff
who are EU residents will have independent access to a replica of the source
code needed to maintain services under "extreme circumstances." The services
will have "no critical dependencies on non-EU infrastructure," with staff,
tech, and leadership all based on the continent, AWS said. "The AWS European
Sovereign Cloud will have its own dedicated Amazon Route 53, providing
customers with a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS),
domain name registration, and health-checking web services," the company
said. "The Route 53 name servers for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will
use only European Top Level Domains (TLDs) for their own names," added AWS.
"AWS will also launch a dedicated 'root' European Certificate Authority, so
that the key material, certificates, and identity verification needed for
Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security certificates can all run
autonomously within the AWS European Sovereign Cloud." The Register also
notes that the sovereign cloud will be "supported by a dedicated European
Security Operations Center (SOC), led by an EU citizen residing in the EU."
That said, the parent company "remains under American ownership and may be
subject to the Cloud Act, which requires U.S. companies to turn over data to
law enforcement authorities with the proper warrants, no matter where that
data is stored."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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