The first two Oracle sovereign cloud regions for the EU will be located in Germany and Spain, with operations and support restricted to EU residents and specific EU legal entities. Credit: Natali Mis / Getty Images In a bid to help enterprises and institutions in the European Union navigate data privacy, residency, and other regulatory guidelines, Oracle plans to launch two sovereign cloud regions for the European Union this year. Unlike a generic cloud region, a sovereign cloud region is designed to offer secure data access to both private and public entities while meeting the stringent regulatory guidelines of a particular region. Oracle’s sovereign cloud, which is a subset of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) portfolio, will not move customer content from the regions the customers select for their workloads and will restrict operations and customer support responsibilities to EU residents, said Scott Twaddle, vice-president of OCI product at Oracle. “These sovereign cloud regions are also designed to further enable customers to demonstrate alignment with relevant EU regulations and guidance,” Twaddle wrote in a blog post. The sovereign cloud regions will be logically and physically separate from the existing public OCI Regions in the EU, Oracle said. OCI currently operates six public OCI Regions located in the EU in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Marseille, Milan, and Stockholm. The company is planning to migrate customers using Oracle Fusion Cloud applications within the existing EU Restricted Access cloud service to the new OCI sovereign cloud regions. Oracle, which has said that it will continue investing in its cloud business, has planned the first two sovereign regions in Germany and Spain for the EU with both being operational by the end of this year. The company has other sovereign regions in the UK, US, and Australia along with separate cloud regions for the UK and US defense departments. Oracle, which also runs a classified US national security cloud region, competes with the likes of AWS, Azure, IBM, and VMware in the sovereign cloud space. Last month, the company announced that it was reducing the price of its OCI dedicated region in a bid to expand its customer base. Related content opinion The cyber pandemic: AI deepfakes and the future of security and identity verification Attackers have seen huge success using AI deepfakes for injection and presentation attacks – which means we’ll only see more of them. Advanced technology can help prevent (not just detect them). By Aaron Painter May 02, 2024 5 mins Artificial Intelligence Security brandpost Sponsored by Cisco Transform the modern data center: From today to the future Embrace agility, elasticity, and cognitive intelligence capabilities for a data center strategy that’s performance-ready and sustainable for the future. By Murali Gandluru May 02, 2024 4 mins Networking brandpost Sponsored by TCS and Microsoft 5 keys to optimizing ROI on your Cloud Center of Excellence 5 keys to optimizing ROI on your Cloud Center of Excellence CoE adoption is on the rise – but success means evaluating relevance, staying connected, building a strong team, continuous innovation, and transforming culture. By Tata Consultancy Services May 02, 2024 2 mins Manufacturing Industry Cloud Computing brandpost Sponsored by TCS and Microsoft Best practice advice for improving productivity while maintaining security The modern “borderless workplace” requires a new strategy. Microsoft and TCS are answering the challenge with innovation solutions. By Tata Consultancy Services May 02, 2024 1 min Manufacturing Industry Microsoft Cloud Computing PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe