AWS has announced the availability of its Amazon Q Business platform in Europe in a move sure to please sovereignty-conscious customers.
The tool, which can be used by staff to find internal data sources more efficiently, will now be available in AWS’ Ireland region in the city of Dublin.
Until now the tool has only been available to AWS customers in the US, and the director of worldwide go-to-market for Amazon Q, David Pessis, said there’s been a lot of pent-up demand for the product in Europe.
“Our European customers have been begging us to launch in Europe, so Dublin will be, hopefully, our first of many data centers in Europe to serve our European customers and we're pretty excited,” Pessis told ITPro.
Central to this demand is a customer's sense of safety with AWS, Pessis said, as many have been with the firm for a long time and trust the safety and security policies that are in place.
There’s also the data residency aspect, he added. This version of Amazon Q Business will run, store, and process all of its data within the region, thereby improving regulatory compliance and latency.
Pessis said it was important to provide sovereignty capabilities to its European customers. He noted that many of these customers prefer to access support in-region and benefit from improved performance.
“Even if it wasn't a legal issue they want to keep it in Europe, because if they start moving into other data centers, right, that's expensive,” Pessis said.
“It's a win across all those three dimensions - bringing Q business where their data is, data sovereignty, and performance,” he added.
Europe is a key focal point for AWS and an area in which the firm is planning to “aggressively” expand and continue investing, Pessis revealed.
“I can't get dates, but I can just say that it's a top priority for us,” Pessis said.
Data sovereignty is a hot topic
Firms are becoming increasingly receptive to customer demands for sovereign services or platforms that ensure data residency in regions, particularly in Europe.
RELATED WHITEPAPER
In May 2024, for example, AWS announced a €7.8 billion investment into ‘AWS European Sovereign Cloud’ to establish sovereign cloud infrastructure in the German region of Brandenburg.
Oracle has also been bullish on sovereignty offerings, with one of the firm’s execs telling ITPro that demand for the service is “truly global” in September 2024 following Oracle’s establishment of a sovereign cloud region in Europe back in 2023.
Research from earlier this year found that data sovereignty is a growing priority for customers in the UK, with 51% of UK organizations describing it as a crucial aspect of their data management strategy.
MORE FROM ITPRO
- What is a sovereign cloud?
- Google Cloud announces UK data residency for agentic AI services
- Google Cloud announces data residency for machine learning in the UK
-
AI is transforming storage, and creating new opportunities for channel partnersIndustry Insights AI will have a profound impact on storage and channel partner growth
-
Microsoft issues warning over “opportunistic” cyber criminals targeting big businessNews Microsoft has called on governments to do more to support organizations
-
‘I don't think anyone is farther in the enterprise’: Marc Benioff is bullish on Salesforce’s agentic AI lead – and Agentforce 360 will help it stay top of the perchNews Salesforce is leaning on bringing smart agents to customer data to make its platform the easiest option for enterprises
-
This new Microsoft tool lets enterprises track internal AI adoption rates – and even how rival companies are using the technologyNews Microsoft's new Benchmarks feature lets managers track and monitor internal Copilot adoption and usage rates – and even how rival companies are using the tool.
-
Salesforce just launched a new catch-all platform to build enterprise AI agentsNews Businesses will be able to build agents within Slack and manage them with natural language
-
The tech industry is becoming swamped with agentic AI solutions – analysts say that's a serious cause for concernNews “Undifferentiated” AI companies will be the big losers in the wake of a looming market correction
-
Microsoft says 71% of workers have used unapproved AI tools at work – and it’s a trend that enterprises need to crack down onNews Shadow AI is by no means a new trend, but it’s creating significant risks for enterprises
-
Huawei executive says 'we need to embrace AI hallucinations’News Tao Jingwen, director of Huawei’s quality, business process & IT management department, said firms should embrace hallucinations as part and parcel of generative AI.
-
The rise of the UK’s ‘invisible’ AI workforceNews Research from Multiverse shows AI skills are becoming common in non-tech roles
-
Why Nvidia’s $100 billion deal with OpenAI is a win-win for both companiesNews OpenAI will use Nvidia chips to build massive systems to train AI
