AWS Will Run Its European Sovereign Cloud Without the Global Backbone for Several Hours
On October 24, AWS will operate its European Sovereign Cloud without a connection to the AWS Global Network backbone, with a team of EU residents and the region’s own hardware and software. AWS says neither of the two systems being severed is operation-critical, and practitioners are divided over whether the exercise answers the question customers are asking. By Steef-Jan Wiggers
On Saturday, October 24, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will temporarily disconnect its European Sovereign Cloud from the AWS Global Network backbone for several hours. Despite the cut, the region will continue to operate. The European Sovereign Cloud has two systems: the Global Network backbone and a dedicated channel for limited data transfers.
When the traffic falls back to the public internet over the region’s own links from European ISPs, it will result in short disruptions during route convergence. Stéphane Israël, managing director of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, will run the region’s own hardware and software using data centers in Brandenburg holding a local in-EU copy of the source code.
The exercise complies with the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and Germany’s BSI C3A criteria. It promotes resilience but does not ensure true sovereignty. Legal concerns remain, as US law can still order data access or service termination. While AWS claims the exercise demonstrates progress, others argue that technical solutions cannot solve legal issues.
The test does not address how long the region can operate independently or handle dependencies on external control planes.
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