Cloud giant Oracle set to launch New Sovereign Cloud Regions in the EU

Cloud giant, Oracle, is set to launch its sovereign cloud regions in the European Union (EU) in 2023. The EU's first two sovereign cloud regions would be Germany and Spain. Its operations and support would be restricted to EU residents and precise EU legal entities.

The new regions would be physically and logically distinct from the existing public Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) regions. OCI is operational in six EU regions: Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Marseille, and Milan.

Oracle is planning to offer all of its OCI services through the regions of the European Union Restricted Access (EURA) application services. The pricing for OCI services would remain as in the existing OCI regions, and the EURA pricing will remain unchanged. Customers would use Oracle Universal Credits to obtain assistance and participate in OCI programs.

The company established the fact that both public sector organisations and private companies in the EU will be able to access the new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) sovereign cloud regions to host data and applications that are regulated, sensitive, and of strategic regional importance.

The important aspect of cloud adoption is cloud services with data centrs in the EU. Operated, supported, and updated by EU residents while preserving isolation from non-EU cloud regions. This move will open up opportunities to adopt software Infrastructure and platform as a service.

The new OCI’s sovereign cloud will limit customer support responsibilities and operations to EU residents. The OCI sovereign cloud would build on its established general policy of not transferring customer content from regions for workloads. The sovereign clouds help customers align with relevant EU regulations and guidance.

Plans to migrate customers by Oracle using Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications within the existing EU Restricted Access cloud service to the new OCI sovereign cloud regions.

Oracle aims to introduce new regions as countries engage more data requirements within their borders. Several organisations ask their global cloud providers for more transparency and control of where and how their data is stored, secure, and handled.

In a recent interview with Scott Twaddle, vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Product and Industries, he mentioned that customers discuss some benefits they want from the cloud as the requirements for where data is located, the regulations they must meet, and the personnel in charge of operating the underlying infrastructure.

The Company also stated that it operates in government regions in the UK and North America and has deployed its first OCI Dedicated Region, which aids highly-regulated companies and governments around the globe.

As Oracle isn’t the only company that plans to launch a sovereign cloud, Microsoft recently won a contract to advance a sovereign cloud for Singapore in February or early this year.

Singapore’s Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) chose the Microsoft tech giant for the job. They highlighted that the sovereign cloud would immensely help to play an essential role in supporting domestic services to provide upgraded safety and security to all citizens.