22OCT

AWS to unplug its EU cloud from backbone

3 min read

17:24UTC

AWS will run its European Sovereign Cloud in Brandenburg for several hours on Saturday 24 October with no link to the AWS global backbone, in a test it runs and observes itself.

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Key takeaway

AWS's test checks network independence, not exposure to US law.

AWS said on 28 September that its AWS European Sovereign Cloud in Brandenburg will run for "several hours" on Saturday 24 October with no connection to the AWS global network backbone, the private network linking its data centres⁠¹. Authorised operational traffic will reroute over the public internet through dedicated European providers. AWS will also switch off the system it uses for "limited, controlled transfers of operational data", and calls neither link critical to operations.

An EU-resident operations team will run the test on the region's own hardware and software, according to the post by the region's managing director. AWS says the exercise follows the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and the C3A criteria of BSI, Germany's federal cyber-security agency, and will produce "verifiable technical and operational evidence". It will "share an update" with regulators and customers afterwards. The post names no independent auditor and does not mention the CLOUD Act, the US law that lets American authorities compel US companies to hand over data held abroad.

European rivals sell against that jurisdictional exposure: Atos launched its own sovereign cloud for government and defence buyers in July, and Civo filled a London conference hall with the jurisdiction argument in September. France's SecNumCloud label and the Commission's cloud proposal rank providers on who owns them and which law reaches them, and a backbone disconnection changes neither.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is Amazon's cloud business, the world's largest. It has built a separate cloud region in Brandenburg, Germany, aimed at European customers who want their data kept under European control. For a few hours on 24 October, AWS will disconnect that region from its worldwide private network to show it can run on its own. Staff living in the EU will run the test. The CLOUD Act is a US law that lets American authorities require US companies to hand over data, even data stored abroad. Critics say a cut-off cable does not change who owns the company.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

European buyers now ask two different questions of US providers: can the service run if cut off, and can a foreign government order access to the data. Network engineering can answer the first. Only corporate structure or a treaty can answer the second.

AWS designed its European Sovereign Cloud to answer the first question. It has its own hardware, EU-resident staff and separate infrastructure, which a drill can demonstrate in hours.

Germany's BSI C3A criteria and the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework give providers a checklist to meet. A self-run test lets AWS show compliance with the technical items on its own timetable, before buyers demand an outside audit.

What could happen next?

Precedent
Other US providers may face pressure to run their own disconnection drills for European regions.
Short term · Suggested
Risk
A self-observed test may not satisfy buyers who want third-party attestation.
Short term · Suggested
Consequence
AWS's update to regulators will become evidence in debates over how the cloud bill scores US-owned providers.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In 2015 Microsoft launched Microsoft Cloud Germany, with Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems acting as a data trustee so that Microsoft itself could not reach customer data. It stopped taking new customers in 2018 and closed later; buyers found the trustee model costly and slow to receive new features.

Counter-parallel: The Microsoft Ireland warrant case, which ran from 2013 to 2018, turned on whether US authorities could compel data stored in Dublin. Congress settled it with the CLOUD Act in March 2018, which made jurisdiction follow the company rather than the server's location.

Sovereign cloud is one of the fastest-growing segments in European IT, and US hyperscalers are competing for it directly against European providers. A credible independence test helps AWS keep public-sector and regulated customers who might otherwise move to a European-owned rival.

The structural cost of running a separate region, with its own staff and hardware, is high. AWS can spread it across a large customer base in a way that smaller European providers find harder.

Consensus view: CISPE, the trade body for European cloud providers, split certified services into "Sovereign" and "Resilient" tiers when it launched its framework in April. A disconnection drill is evidence for the second tier: it shows a region can keep running cut off, which is a resilience property.

Counter-view: AWS argues that customers and regulators can verify operational independence directly. It cites the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and the C3A criteria of BSI, Germany's federal cyber-security agency, both of which score technical and operational controls alongside legal ones, and promises "verifiable technical and operational evidence".

Key tension: Whether proof that the Brandenburg region runs without the backbone answers the jurisdiction question, since a US parent company remains subject to US legal orders whatever the network topology.

Sources:Amazon Web Services·Amazon Web Services

Mentions:AWS →BSI →Brandenburg →CLOUD Act →Germany →Atos →Civo →CISPE →Dublin →Amazon Web Services →Amazon →Ireland →London →France →Microsoft →SecNumCloud →Deutsche Telekom →

First Reported In

Update #17 · EU questions AI labs over loss of control

Amazon Web Services· 22 Oct 2026

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AWS European Sovereign Cloud

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.