Sovereign Cloud goes live: AWS Europe delivers innovation without compromises

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is a dedicated AWS cloud environment located entirely in the EU, with the first region now live in Brandenburg (Germany) and additional sovereign Local Zones are planned for Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal from 2026 onward. It combines full‑featured AWS services with an EU‑only operating and governance model so that infrastructure, operations and data residency are aligned with European legal and regulatory expectations.

Key expansion facts in Europe

The German sovereign region is the anchor of this new cloud, and it is physically and logically separated from standard AWS regions while remaining fully featured in terms of services and innovation roadmap. AWS has committed a long‑term multi‑billion‑euro investment to this platform and plans to extend the footprint across Europe, starting with sovereign Local Zones in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal to support in‑country data residency and low‑latency needs. Customers will also be able to extend this sovereign footprint with dedicated infrastructure such as AWS Outposts, Dedicated Local Zones and AI infrastructure in locations of their choice within the EU.

What this means for European customers

For European organizations, this means that cloud transformation, analytics and AI initiatives no longer have to conflict with strict expectations on data residency, operator access and jurisdiction. Workloads can run on modern AWS services while remaining in an environment operated by EU‑resident staff, under EU law, with customer content and key metadata kept inside the EU and backed by a clear, auditable sovereignty framework. This is particularly relevant for governments and regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare, energy and critical infrastructure operators that must demonstrate control over data and operations to supervisors and boards.

Actionable steps for C-level leaders

European CIOs, CFOs and CISOs now face a clear decision point: how to operationalize sovereign cloud within existing transformation roadmaps and risk frameworks. These five recommendations provide a practical path forward, balancing strategic positioning with immediate next steps.

1. Treat sovereignty as strategic architecture, not just a legal clause: incorporate the European Sovereign Cloud into your target enterprise architecture so that residency, access control and governance are designed in from the start rather than added as exceptions later.
2. Map your most sensitive workloads first: identify systems with the highest regulatory, reputational or geopolitical exposure (for example core banking, patient data, grid operations or government records) and evaluate them as early candidates for the sovereign environment.
3. Align finance and risk early: have CIO, CFO and CISO jointly assess how moving to a sovereign cloud can replace capex‑heavy “special” infrastructures with a standardised, OPEX‑based model while improving risk posture and auditability.
4. Use partners with sovereignty expertise: work with AWS partners that hold the digital sovereignty competency and have proven experience designing and operating architectures on this new platform—like Noventiq.
5. Start with a 3–6 month pilot: select one meaningful but contained workload, deploy it on the European Sovereign Cloud in Germany and use that pilot to validate performance, compliance evidence and operating model before scaling to additional EU locations as they come online.

How Noventiq supports your sovereign cloud journey

As an AWS Premier Partner with the AWS Digital Sovereignty Competency, Noventiq has proven expertise in delivering sovereign cloud architectures and has been validated by AWS for helping customers meet EU data residency, operator access and governance requirements. We can help you assess which workloads should move to the European Sovereign Cloud, design architectures that combine the German region with upcoming Local Zones in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal, and implement pilots that validate compliance and performance in weeks rather than months. Our teams provide end‑to‑end support from initial strategy through migration, operations and continuous optimisation, so you can focus on business outcomes while we handle the sovereignty complexity.

👉 Book your meeting to discuss your potential next step