Amazon Web Services (AWS) selected fiber firm EUNetworks as one of the first connectivity partners for its European sovereign cloud.

The London-headquartered business will provide secure, private connectivity into the independent AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Unveiled in January, the offering is an independent cloud for European customers, physically and logically separate from other AWS regions.

As an official connectivity partner, EUNetworks will enable direct, high-performance access between data centers and the new cloud region, with a view to supporting data residency, operational autonomy, and resilience at scale. 

EUNetworks joins other partners on the venture such as Red Hat, which is supporting European governments and companies in the AWS clients base to meet stringent data residency requirements, as well as SUSE, which offers its Linux products on the AWS Marketplace for Europe.

“Data sovereignty is one of the most critical topics for businesses right now and this priority is only set to grow in strength, particularly in the EU and wider Europe where regulatory pressures continue to rise," EUNetworks CEO Marisa Trisolino noted in a statement. "[We are] perfectly placed to support organizations in keeping their data safe by providing secure access to sovereign cloud platforms. Our European focus, data center-to-data center connectivity leadership and high-performance, private connectivity mean customers can trust that their data is secure and compliant."

Mark Butcher, managing director of British cloud consultancy Posetiv Cloud, recently argued the sovereignty issue remains a legal question as opposed to a technical one, with ownership the ultimate deciding factor on sovereign solutions such as those from AWS.

“They know this, and the courts know this, I really don’t know why we’re all pretending it isn’t true,” Butcher told SDxCentral. “Sovereignty isn’t about where the servers sit, it’s about who owns the company and which courts can reach your data.

“If the cloud provider is ultimately owned by a U.S. company, the data is subject to U.S. law," Butcher added. "Calling that sovereign is just nonsense and they know that. As AWS is subject to U.S. law, then the data isn’t sovereign. Geography or operating models don’t change anything.”