- Sovereign cloud offerings used to focus on Europe
- But the Middle East is rapidly emerging as a new sovereign cloud hub
- The region's AI push is also making it a hub for data center and cloud investment more generally
The sovereign cloud may have been born and bred in Europe, but the Middle East is its new home.
Google led the sovereign cloud charge in 2021, partnering with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems to launch a sovereign cloud for Germany. Microsoft followed with its own sovereign offering in 2022, with AWS bringing up the rear in 2023 when it unveiled its plans for a European Sovereign Cloud.
The decision to focus sovereign cloud efforts on Europe was a practical one: the region has long led the way on data protection and privacy regulation.
And there’s still plenty of action in these countries, what with France’s Orange working with Capgemini and Microsoft on Bleu and Microsoft finishing its EU Data Boundary project and insisting it will fight for the right to provide cloud services in Europe.
Just this week, Google Cloud rolled out its own Data Boundary offering for customers in the U.S. and Europe as well as a User Data Shield that validates sovereign deployments.
Middle East in focus
But the Middle East is rapidly emerging as the new sovereign cloud hub, thanks in large part to the region’s commitment to building itself into an AI hub.
In February, Google Cloud inked a deal with Accenture to speed the adoption of sovereign cloud and generative AI solutions in Saudi Arabia. The same month, stc Group teamed with a company called SambaNova to build a sovereign cloud specifically for AI in the country. And in March, Microsoft partnered with Core42 to build a sovereign cloud for the government of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The area isn’t just attracting sovereign cloud plays either.
In February, AWS partnered up with stc Group to speed the rollout of cloud and AI services in Saudi Arabia. And then there was the slew of announcements earlier this month related to the country’s HUMAIN initiative.
AWS is working with HUMAIN to build an AI zone, which will feature the strength of its cloud computing. Meanwhile, Nvidia said it will supply 18,000 NVIDIA GB300 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputers with NVIDIA InfiniBand networking to help HUMAIN build new AI data centers there.
Oh and just this week, private equity giant Bain Capital announced the launch of hscale, a new hyperscale data center provider that will focus on serving the Middle East.
Safe to say activity is more than worth watching.