The launch is almost a year after the vendor first announced plans to launch a sovereign cloud in Europe
Oracle is launching its EU Sovereign Cloud for customers in the European Union (EU), nearly a year after it announced its plans to do so. Oracle’s new sovereign cloud is open for business in all 27 EU member states.
Like it’s Big Three cloud rivals (AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud), Oracle already provides infrastructure where European customers can store and process their data. The EU Sovereign Cloud is to build on this, especially hoping to broaden its appeal to the highly sensitive public sector and communications networks.
Oracle stresses that the EU Sovereignty Cloud is also about making its compliant service available to everyone, including consumers, as Scott Twaddle, Vice President, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, explained in this blog. It also expects to work with global companies that must comply with data sovereignty in the region for the same prices and service level agreements (SLAs) as for its existing public cloud offering.
Beaten to the punch?
Its much bigger rival, Microsoft, beat Oracle to it, launching its Cloud for Sovereignty last July.
Sovereignty is supposedly music to the EU’s ears, suggesting compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR as well as preparedness for legislation in the pipeline, like the AI Act and Privacy Shield 2.0, which governs EU-US data transfers.
Sovereignty implies greater transparency and control nearer to home – check out the graphic at the top of the story from Oracle.
AWS doesn’t go for sovereignty labelling: Stephen Schmidt, Amazon’s Chief Security Officer, including AWS, was quoted last September by Techzine saying, “Sovereign cloud is more a marketing term than anything else.” He was then at great pains to explain how AWS is toeing the line in the EU.
The press statement said, “Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud builds on Oracle Cloud’s compliance programs that enable customers to demonstrate adherence to regional and industry regulations. It also aligns with EU monitoring regulations, and guidance that limits data transfers out of the EU (such as Court of Justice for EU Schrems II Ruling and European Data Protection Board).
Data centres in Spain and Germany
The data centres associated with Oracle’s EU Sovereignty Cloud are located in Frankfurt (hosted by Equinix) and Madrid (with partner Digital Realty, owned and operated by Oracle-owned EU legal entities incorporated within the EU. All operations and customer support are EU-based.
Despite all these steps by cloud providers, many organisations including telcos, will continue to run their own private clouds or have a hybrid set-up that ensures the most sensitive data is kept within their own infrastructure.
Still Oracle is upbeat. “The European Union technology landscape has changed dramatically due to the growing importance of data protection and localization, leading to increased demand for sovereign cloud solutions that can securely host sensitive customer data and comply with regulations such as GDPR,” said Richard Smith, EVP, Technology, EMEA, Oracle.
“Our goal is to meet customers wherever they are in their cloud journey and with Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, customers in highly regulated industries, as well as those subject to certain country-specific legislation, can now accelerate their cloud strategies,” he added.