15.7 billion euros for Spain over a period of ten years. Amazon Web Services on Wednesday he announced a record investment to increase the capacity of its data centers located on the Iberian Peninsula. The American giant already has three availability zones and data centers in Aragon and the northeast of the country. AWS promises that these sites will be 100% powered by renewable energy and will help create 17,500 indirect jobs.
The previous week, AWS had already announced an investment of 7.8 billion euros in Germany develop the “sovereign cloud” offer, the launch of which is planned for 2025.
The company assures in its press release that these investments will enable the hiring of local employees to manage the data centers used to implement this sovereign cloud. But the company could also choose to fund the development of new dedicated data centers.
The race for the sovereign cloud and the special role of France
The possibility of a European sovereign cloud – free from legal considerations – must protect service providers from the extraterritorial laws of countries outside the EU. This arouses the desire of American players in the cloud, such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft.
Text specifying the outlines of the new cloud certification at the European level is being completed. But Amazon and Microsoft have already announced several major cloud investments in Europe.
American players believe that an offer based on infrastructure installed within the EU will be sufficient to obtain European certification. And markets reserved for its holders.
In contrast, France is one of the countries that favors a more limited version of the text. He is in favor of high-level certification, reserved for companies that are not subject to the laws of non-European countries.
Less investment from AWS in France
And in fact, these two announcements from AWS contradict the investments promised by the American giant during Operation Choose France, which took place last week.
On this occasion, Amazon Web Services promised an investment of only… 1.3 billion euros for France.
Enough to build a new data center and a new warehouse for your e-commerce activities.
Microsoft also distributes money
For its part, Microsoft has promised to put a total of 4 billion euros on the table to strengthen its cloud infrastructure in France.
And that after he announced his intention to invest in February 3.2 billion euros in Germany AND 2.1 billion in Spain.