Thought Leadership
Amazon wants to prove that its Sovereign Cloud in Brandenburg, Germany, can operate independently of the United States. Today, AWS will disconnect it from the global AWS backbone for several hours to test its operational independence.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to conduct a high-profile stress test of its European cloud infrastructure on Saturday, October 24, 2026. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is set to operate for several hours without any connection to the AWS Global Network, the private fiber-optic network AWS normally uses to transfer operational data between its locations. Stéphane Israël, Managing Director of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, announced the exercise in a blog post.
The goal is to demonstrate that the sovereign cloud does not depend on infrastructure outside the European Union. According to AWS, the exercise was initiated by the managing directors responsible for the Sovereign Cloud itself.
Traffic Rerouted Over the Public Internet
During the test, traffic that would normally travel over the AWS backbone will instead use dedicated internet connections provided by European internet service providers. AWS says the exercise will be conducted exclusively by a team based in the EU, using only hardware and software belonging to the Sovereign Cloud itself.
AWS will also completely disable a second global system: a transfer interface used under normal operating conditions to move approved data into and out of the EU under controlled conditions. Incoming transfers include verified copies of source code and software updates. Outgoing transfers are limited to a small amount of approved routine information, according to AWS. Customer content and customer-generated metadata are not supposed to leave the EU at any time.
“The exercise will not affect service availability within the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, other AWS Regions, or private connectivity through AWS Direct Connect. Customers may experience brief connectivity disruptions as traffic moves onto a separate network route at the beginning or the end of the exercise, after which normal connectivity resumes.”
Stéphane Israël, Managing Director, AWS European Sovereign Cloud
Service availability is expected to remain unaffected across the Sovereign Cloud, other AWS Regions, and private Direct Connect connections. However, AWS warns of brief disruptions at the beginning and end of the exercise. When routes change, external networks must update their routing information. This process, known as routing convergence, can cause short interruptions. Organizations running critical workloads in the Sovereign Cloud should therefore keep the test window in mind.
AWS Builds Its Own Cloud in Brandenburg
The European Sovereign Cloud is Amazon’s response to Europe’s debate over digital sovereignty. Its data centers are located in Brandenburg, Germany, and are physically and logically separated from all other AWS Regions, according to the company. A copy of the source code is stored locally within the EU, and the cloud is operated exclusively by EU citizens or employees based in the EU.
In day-to-day operations, however, the Sovereign Cloud remains connected to AWS’s global network. AWS says this connection improves performance, capacity, resilience, and cost efficiency. The company also states that the backbone encrypts traffic end to end, provides distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, and cannot access encrypted customer data.
Crucially, AWS maintains that the global backbone is not essential to the operation of the Sovereign Cloud. The upcoming test is intended to demonstrate precisely that.
Evidence for Compliance Teams
The exercise is primarily aimed at public-sector organizations and regulated industries, which AWS identifies as key target groups for its Sovereign Cloud. It is designed to provide verifiable technical and operational evidence that the cloud can run independently within the EU.
According to AWS, the company is aligning its approach with the European Commission’s EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (CSF) and the C3A criteria established by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Both frameworks define criteria for assessing whether a cloud service can be delivered independently.
The results will also feed into AWS’s internal Sovereign Reference Framework (ESC-SRF). This collection of evidence and control mappings is intended to help customers prepare for and support their audits. AWS plans to inform regulators and customers about the results after the exercise.
Technical Independence Is Only Part of Sovereignty
The exercise is a strategically astute move. A scheduled test followed by a report to regulators can provide more tangible evidence than a white paper alone. However, it will demonstrate only that the cloud can operate without a connection to Amazon’s global network for several hours. Whether it could remain stable and secure for weeks or months without software updates and source code mirrors from the United States is a different question. A test lasting an afternoon cannot answer it.
The legal question also remains unresolved, a recurring concern among critics of US cloud providers. AWS is a US company and is therefore generally subject to US laws, including the CLOUD Act. Disconnecting a fiber-optic cable does not change that. Ultimately, lawyers and regulators, rather than network engineers, may have the final say on how robust AWS’s sovereignty claims really are.
Slovenian CDN provider Bunny.net takes a similar view. “Operational independence is an important part of cloud sovereignty, but it’s not the whole story,” Kevin McGhee, VP of Engineering at Bunny.net, told it-daily.net.
The planned isolation test highlights the growing importance of digital sovereignty in Europe’s cloud market, McGhee said. However, European companies must also consider ownership, legal jurisdiction, governance structures, and technological dependencies, as well as the question of “who ultimately exercises control over the infrastructure.”
(Editorial Team)
