AWS European Sovereign Cloud

Build, migrate, and operate in the
AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is designed to help organisations meet evolving sovereignty needs, including EU data residency, operational autonomy, and resiliency. Critical Cloud helps you design and build sovereignty-ready foundations, migrate safely, and then run operations 24×7 with our managed service Critical Support.

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EU
sovereignty requirements supported
Build
landing zones + security foundations
Migrate
phased cutover + validation
24×7
incident ownership — Datadog-powered where policy allows
Overview Build · Migrate · Support Powered by Datadog Shared responsibility Getting started FAQ
Sovereign readiness, made practical

We focus on the real blockers that slow sovereign cloud adoption: identity boundaries, data residency decisions, third-party dependencies, and operational visibility.

  • Architecture aligned to sovereign controls and isolation
  • Security logging, encryption, and access governance
  • Operations Datadog-first (or in-boundary observability where required)
  • Migration phased delivery with cutover safety

What is the AWS European Sovereign Cloud?

It’s a new, independent cloud for Europe intended for organisations with stringent sovereignty requirements. If you operate in regulated industries (or serve customers who do), sovereign cloud is often driven by data residency, operational control, and resilience demands.

Common drivers
  • Data residency requirements (including metadata) and clear evidence for auditors.
  • Operational autonomy expectations for sensitive workloads.
  • Resiliency needs for critical services and public-sector contracts.
  • Vendor risk reduction and clearer governance controls.
How we position it

We treat sovereign cloud as both a platform decision and an operating model decision. Most teams can build a compliant environment but the hard part is maintaining clarity, evidence, and calm operations over time.

That’s why we combine sovereignty-ready AWS delivery with 24×7 operations and Datadog-powered observability where policy allows.

Build. Migrate. Support.

Three clear service motions designed to get you into the AWS European Sovereign Cloud safely, then keep you stable and improving.

Build sovereign-ready infrastructure

Design and provision AWS foundations with clear boundaries, governance, and observability from day one.

Foundation
Landing zones Identity & access model Network segmentation Guardrails
Security + evidence
Logging & auditability Encryption & key approach Baseline controls Runbooks

Migrate to the sovereign cloud

Move from on-prem, another cloud, or a non-sovereign AWS estate using a phased, low-risk delivery plan.

Plan
Workload inventory Dependency mapping Wave plan Cutover runbooks
Execute
Validation Rollback safety Performance baselining Go-live support

24×7 support with Critical Support

Operate and improve your sovereign platform with always-on incident ownership, service reviews, and observability aligned to your sovereignty policy.

Incident management
24×7 coverage Triage & escalation Safe recovery Blameless RCA
Continuous improvement
Reliability Security posture Cost control Automation

Powered by Datadog, by design

Traditional cloud MSPs often rely on proprietary monitoring views that prioritise provider efficiency over customer insight. Critical Cloud takes a different approach: customer-owned visibility and disciplined operations with Datadog as our default observability platform, implemented to match your sovereignty policy.

  • Customer-owned visibility: you have direct access to your Datadog environment and operational data.
  • Full-fidelity telemetry: infrastructure, applications, logs, security signals, cloud cost, and AI workloads.
  • Operational discipline: Datadog drives alerting, diagnosis, and measured incident response, not noisy dashboards.

In the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, that matters even more because your monitoring and audit evidence becomes part of your sovereignty story. We implement Datadog in a way that matches your architecture, your risk posture, and the outcomes you need to prove.

Datadog is our default operating layer when it aligns with your sovereignty policy. If your programme requires monitoring data to remain fully inside the AWS European Sovereign Cloud boundary, we implement an in-boundary observability pattern and keep sensitive telemetry local, all with the same 24×7 incident ownership.

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Shared responsibility

You own your apps, data, and decisions. Critical Cloud builds, migrates, operates, and improves. AWS provides the cloud platform and sovereign controls.

Area Customer Critical Cloud Cloud provider (AWS)
Application code Owns Supports N/A
Platform provisioning (IaC) Approves Implements and improves N/A
Data residency & telemetry decisions Owns requirements / approves boundary Designs controls, evidence, and telemetry boundary Provides sovereign capabilities
Monitoring & observability Approves approach / has access Implements Datadog or in-boundary observability, manages, optimises N/A
Security, compliance, access control Owns decisions Operates controls, improves posture Platform primitives
Infrastructure availability N/A N/A Owns
Incidents & recovery Informed / approves major changes Owns response, comms, and resolution workflow Owns platform incidents

We’ll tailor this to your governance model (internal security, external auditors, regulated customer requirements).

Sovereignty includes people and access. During discovery we confirm operator residency/location requirements and align the on-call and privileged access model accordingly (UK-based today, EU delivery capability expanding in Dublin).

Getting started

Pick the entry point that matches where you are today. The goal is always the same: sovereign-ready foundations and calm operations.

Sovereign readiness workshop

A fast discovery to confirm requirements, constraints, and the lowest-risk migration/build path.

Workload inventory Data residency map Dependency risks Plan & next steps
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Build & operate

Greenfield platform build with Terraform and best-practice foundations, then transition into 24×7 Critical Support.

Landing zone Security + logging Observability setup 24×7 operations
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Migrate & operate

Phased migration delivery with cutover safety, followed by continuous improvement and incident ownership.

Wave plan Cutover runbooks Validation Operate + improve
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FAQ

Why now? What’s driving sovereign cloud adoption?

For many organisations, sovereignty has moved from a niche compliance topic to a board-level requirement. It’s being driven by a mix of regulation and procurement expectations, clearer data residency and access controls, and a desire to reduce vendor and geopolitical risk for critical services.

Can Critical Cloud help us build, migrate to, or operate in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud?

Yes — this is the core of the service. We deliver sovereignty-ready AWS foundations, phased migration plans and delivery, and 24×7 operations through Critical Support.

Can you migrate from an existing AWS Region into the sovereign cloud?

Yes. We plan migrations as phased waves, focusing first on dependencies and data residency constraints. We build cutover runbooks and validation steps to minimise risk — and we stay close through go-live.

How does Datadog fit into a sovereign operating model?

Where your sovereignty policy allows telemetry to be sent to an external observability platform, Datadog becomes the operational foundation: unified telemetry, alerting, and incident workflows, with customer-owned access (no locked dashboards).

If your programme requires monitoring data to remain fully inside the AWS European Sovereign Cloud boundary, we implement an in-boundary observability pattern and still provide 24×7 incident ownership through Critical Support.

Do you offer 24×7 support on the sovereign cloud?

Yes — through Critical Support. It combines 24×7 incident management with continuous improvement across reliability, security, cost, performance, automation, and governance.

Where is your operations team based?

Our engineers are based in the United Kingdom today. We’re expanding EU delivery capability (Dublin) to support customers who require EU-located operational access and on-call coverage. During discovery we confirm your specific sovereignty requirements (including who can access what, where, and how), and we design the operating model accordingly.

Do you support both AWS and Azure sovereign options?

This page focuses on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Critical Cloud also specialises in AWS and Azure broadly. If you’re evaluating sovereignty across providers, we can help you compare options against your specific regulatory and customer requirements.

Where can I read the official AWS information?

AWS overview: aws.eu. FAQs: aws.eu/faq.

Ready to plan your sovereign cloud path?

Tell us what you run today and what sovereignty requirements you need to meet. We’ll recommend the simplest build or migration plan — and how we’d operate it 24×7 with an operating model that matches your sovereignty policy.

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