Amazon (AMZN) plans to launch a separate cloud for European customers that would cater to the public sector and industries with stringent regulatory requirements regarding data, the company announced Wednesday.

Rolling out in Germany first, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Amazon Web Services (AWS) European Sovereign Cloud will be located within Europe, separate from the tech giant's cloud operations in the U.S. Users with enhanced data residency needs will also be allowed to keep all metadata solely in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:European Union (EU), with operational control and suppor🌱t services in the hands of EU-r📖esident AWS employees only.

Some of the sovereign cloud's clients will include government entities in Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, and Romania, among others, Amazon said in a release.

The move comes as the EU invests billions of euros into raising digital sovereignty and data privacy protections. Last year, the bloc's privacy watchdog investigated the public sector's compliance with privacy safeguards in their use of cloud-based services.

Companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL) have also responded by introducing cloud offerings tailored specifically for government customers in Europe, and Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud has features that allow access to European data to be limited to EU residents.

Amazon shares were down 3% in early trading as of 10 a.m. ET Wednesday as shares of Google parent Alphabet also fell after the search giant’s 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:cloud revenues came in lower than expected. However, shares of Aಞmazon were still𒆙 over 45% higher year-to-date.