Amazon Web Services said it will run an exercise on Saturday, October 24, 2026 in which its European Sovereign Cloud operates for several hours without a connection to the AWS Global Network backbone, to demonstrate that the region can run without infrastructure outside the European Union.
What AWS plans to do
According to AWS, the European Sovereign Cloud will disconnect from the AWS Global Network backbone — the private network the company says moves authorized AWS operational data between AWS locations without using the public internet — for several hours. During that window, AWS said the traffic will securely reroute over the public internet using dedicated connectivity from European internet service providers.
AWS said the operational team executing the exercise is composed entirely of EU residents within the EU and will use only the hardware and software resources of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. The company said the AWS European Sovereign Cloud Managing Directors called for the exercise to showcase operational independence.
A second system will also be switched off. AWS described it as a dedicated system, controlled and supervised by the local EU team, that manages limited, controlled transfers of operational AWS data, accepting vetted source code mirroring and software updates and transferring out very limited and approved routine information. The company said the team will disable the system entirely during the exercise.
Expected customer impact
AWS said 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 see brief connectivity disruptions as traffic shifts to a separate network route at the start or end of the exercise, the company said, after which normal connectivity resumes. AWS attributed this to convergence, which it described as a short time when other non-AWS networks change their routing information to reflect the change.
The compliance angle
AWS said the exercise will produce verifiable technical and operational evidence that the European Sovereign Cloud can operate independently within the EU, and that it is designed to be consistent with the objectives of the European Commission's EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and the criteria of the C3A framework from Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
The company said the region is located in Brandenburg, Germany, with data centers physically and logically separate from other AWS Regions and a local in-EU copy of the source code. It said all customer content and customer-created metadata stay in the EU, and that only data that is neither customer content nor customer-created metadata, such as AWS operational data, leaves the EU.
Results will feed into customer compliance and assurance packages alongside the AWS European Sovereign Cloud: Sovereign Reference Framework, according to the company. AWS said it will share an update with regulators and customers after the exercise.
Why the backbone is used at all
AWS said the European Sovereign Cloud normally runs connected to the global backbone because it delivers superior performance, capacity, reliability, security, and cost savings, including always-on encryption and distributed denial of service defenses.
The company said the backbone cannot decrypt or see the encrypted data that European Sovereign Cloud customers send and receive, and that neither of the two global systems it uses is operation-critical or affects the region's sovereignty assurance.
What to do
- Expect possible brief connectivity disruptions at the start and end of the October 24, 2026 window as traffic shifts between network routes.
- Contact AWS Support or your AWS account team if you have questions about the exercise or its potential impact on your workloads.
- Visit aws.eu for details on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud's design and digital sovereignty controls.
- Watch for the post-exercise update AWS says it will share with regulators and customers if you need the evidence for compliance or assurance packages.
Key facts and where they come from
- The exercise is scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2026.
On Saturday, October 24, 2026, we will conduct an exercise demonstrating that the AWS European Sovereign Cloud can operate without depending on any infrastructure outside of the European Union (EU).
- The region will run for several hours without the AWS Global Network backbone, rerouting traffic over the public internet.
For several hours, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will operate without a connection to the AWS Global Network backbone.
- AWS says availability and Direct Connect will not be affected, though brief disruptions are possible.
The exercise will not affect service availability within the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, other AWS Regions, or private connectivity through AWS Direct Connect.
- The operational team is made up entirely of EU residents located in the EU.
The operational team, composed entirely of EU residents within the EU, will execute the exercise using only the hardware and software resources of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
- The cloud is located in Brandenburg, Germany, with separate data centers and a local EU copy of the source code.
Located in Brandenburg, Germany, its data centers are physically and logically separate from other AWS Regions, with a local in-EU copy of the source code.
- The exercise is aligned with the European Commission's EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and BSI's C3A criteria.
The exercise is designed to be consistent with the objectives of the European Commission’s EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework (CSF) and the criteria of the C3A framework from Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
- The dedicated data-transfer system will be turned off during the exercise.
During the exercise, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud team will disable the system entirely, confirming that the AWS European Sovereign Cloud continues to operate independently without it.
- AWS will publish an update after the exercise.
AWS will share an update after the exercise with regulators and customers.