Oracle has unveiled its EU Sovereign Cloud, a new offering designed to assist private and public sector organizations in the European Union (EU) in gaining greater control over data privacy and sovereignty requirements. The EU Sovereign Cloud is one of the first cloud solutions tailored to meet the EU’s evolving regulatory landscape. It provides customers with the services and capabilities of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI) public cloud regions, offering the same prices, support, and service level agreements (SLAs) for running all workloads. The EU Sovereign Cloud is located entirely within the EU, operated by EU-based personnel, and separate from Oracle’s other cloud regions, giving customers enhanced control over their data. This move aligns with Oracle’s distributed cloud strategy, providing customers with additional options to meet regulatory requirements and complement hybrid and dedicated cloud strategies.
Richard Smith, Executive Vice President, Technology, EMEA, Oracle, highlighted the changing technology landscape in the European Union, emphasizing the growing importance of data protection and localization. He stated, “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.”
The EU Sovereign Cloud offers over 100 cloud services available in Oracle’s public cloud without any premium fees for the sovereignty capabilities. It ensures the same SLAs on performance, management, and availability. Customers can also access Oracle Support Rewards and, in the near future, the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite will be available in the EU Sovereign Cloud.
The EU Sovereign Cloud is well-suited for hosting digital businesses in heavily regulated industries. Organizations in healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and the public sector can benefit from the cloud’s capabilities while complying with EU guidelines and requirements for sovereignty and data privacy, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By keeping hosted data within the EU member states and operating solely with EU-based personnel, the EU Sovereign Cloud supports digital transformation efforts across these critical industries.
The cloud region operates under a comprehensive set of policies and governance to enhance data residency, security, privacy, and compliance. It includes a framework for data and operational sovereignty, addressing data storage, access management, and handling data access from entities outside the EU. The Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud data centers are located in Frankfurt, Germany, and Madrid, Spain, owned and operated by separate EU legal entities incorporated within the EU. This reinforces Oracle’s commitment to compliance with EU regulations, including the Court of Justice for EU Schrems II Ruling and the European Data Protection Board.
Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud’s architecture is separate from Oracle’s commercial regions in the EU, with no backbone network connection between them. This separation ensures data security and strengthens data sovereignty. The cloud is designed for high availability and consists of two cloud regions within the EU to support disaster recovery architectures. With each region comprising three fault domains, instances located in one fault domain remain unaffected by hardware failures or compute hardware maintenance in other fault domains.
The EU Sovereign Cloud also introduces new key management services to further enhance data protection and compliance with data sovereignty requirements. These services include the OCI Dedicated Key Management Service and the OCI External Key Management Service, both available across all Oracle Cloud Regions.
The announcement of the EU Sovereign Cloud has received positive feedback from customers, partners, and analysts. Jarkko Levasma, Government CIO and Director General of the Ministry of Finance of Finland, highlighted the importance of cloud services with data centers located in the EU and operated by EU residents. María Jesús Almazor, CEO of Cyber Security and Cloud at Telefónica Tech, expressed enthusiasm for Oracle’s commitment to Spain and its sovereign cloud strategy, which benefits customers throughout the EU. Other organizations, including DXC Technology and Kyndryl, acknowledged the significance of Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud in removing barriers to cloud adoption and complying with strict data processing regulations.
Rahiel Nasir, Associate Research Director at IDC, emphasized the role of sovereign cloud services in providing enterprises with greater control and protection of critical data assets. Roy Illsey, Chief Analyst at Omdia, recognized Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud as a solution that addresses European data privacy and sovereignty requirements while supporting digitalization and compliance efforts.
The EU Sovereign Cloud is part of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI) distributed cloud strategy, which offers customers the advantages of cloud while maintaining control over data residency, locality, and authority across multiple clouds. With 44 commercial and government cloud regions in 23 countries, OCI provides a broad and consistent set of cloud infrastructure services to serve its global customer base.
Oracle’s EU Sovereign Cloud aims to empower organizations in the European Union to navigate data privacy and sovereignty requirements effectively. By offering enhanced control, compliance, and security, the cloud solution supports digital transformation and provides customers in regulated industries with the confidence to embrace the benefits of cloud computing while safeguarding their critical data assets.
