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 brandpost Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks What CIOs need to know about the newly proposed Critical Infrastructure Cyber Incident Reporting Rule The current cybersecurity regulatory landscape continues to evolve, and CIRCIA’s incident reporting requirements are just one of the many emerging regulations organizations will need to observe. By Anand Oswal, Senior Vice President, and GM of Network Security at Palo Alto Networks May 15, 2024 5 mins Security news IT staff shortages damage the bottom line: IDC report According to an IDC survey of IT execs, missed revenue growth, quality declines, and plunges in customer satisfaction are among the key business impacts of understaffed IT orgs. By Evan Schuman May 15, 2024 4 mins Hiring IT Skills IT Training how-to Download our cloud cost management enterprise buyer’s guide From the editors of our sister publication CIO.com, this enterprise buyer’s guide helps IT staff understand the cost management tools available to keep their cloud spend under control. By Peter Wayner May 15, 2024 1 min Budgeting Cloud Management Vendor Management analysis Canadian CIOs discuss driving a successful hybrid cloud roadmap By Lee Rennick, Editor, CIO May 15, 2024 4 mins Events Cloud Computing IT Leadership 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