Google Cloud is expected to have its fully independent platform developed for Germany up and running publicly by the end of the year.
A statement from project partners Google and French defence-tech firm Thales Group say the new German platform will be completely, legally and operationally, fully independent of its American parent.
It will be owned and run by Thales Germany, staffed by local personnel with its data fully protected from third party (non-European businesses and governments) access, they say.
“Germany represents a critical market for sovereign technologies; this partnership is a direct response to private and public German organisations wanting access to Google Cloud’s technology under full German control,” says Christoph Ruffner, CEO and Country Director of Thales for Germany.
“By launching this locally operated infrastructure, we are delivering a solution that guarantees sensitive workloads remain protected from any extraterritorial reach.”
Thales already operates a Cloud subsidiary in France, the S3NS which operates the first European sovereign region.
GOOGLE ASSURES OF COMPLIANCE
Google Cloud’s vice-president for EMEA North Marianne Janik says their partnership with Thales in Germany is “a significant milestone” in their commitment to protecting full digital sovereignty in Europe.
“… we are enabling German organisations even in the most sensitive sectors to innovate with confidence while meeting the specific legal and operational safeguards required by the local regulatory landscape,” she says.
The platform is now available in Preview mode and due to be made available by the end of 2026, the companies say.
SCALING ACROSS EUROPE
The new platform will create two complementary sovereign regions run by Thales with an operating model and technology identical to that of PREMI3NS (run by S3NS in France) for German, French and European users.
“S3NS highly welcomes this new partnership,” says Helene Bringer, President of S3NS and a vice-president with Thales.
“With this German region, we are building a European first: by aiming for SecNumCloud qualification and C5-C3A framework across both regions, it is the first time a sovereign Cloud model targets different local certifications simultaneously, simplifying the compliance burden for multinational customers,” she says.
“By providing multi-region sovereign Cloud capability, we will enable European organisations to benefit from enhanced resilience without ever compromising on sovereignty.”
Thales Germany employs 2300 people across nine sites; its history in the European country dates back to 1880.
The Thales Group has defence, security, aerospace and digital business interest and employs more than 85,000 people in 65 countries including Australia.
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