Thales & Google Cloud launch sovereign cloud in Germany

Thales and Google Cloud have agreed to launch a sovereign cloud service in Germany. It will be operated by a new German entity fully owned and controlled by Thales.

The offering is aimed at German public sector bodies and organisations in regulated industries that need cloud services under local control and within German regulatory boundaries.

The move extends Thales' sovereign cloud model beyond France, where its subsidiary S3NS operates a sovereign cloud region. In Germany, the planned service will use dedicated infrastructure and a separate operating structure designed to keep customer data beyond the reach of non-European third parties.

The German operation will be legally and operationally independent from Google Cloud, with local German staff and management. It is being developed to meet requirements including C5 and the new C3A framework.

The service is available in preview and is expected to reach general availability by the end of 2026. The German region will sit alongside the French sovereign region run by S3NS, creating what Thales describes as a pan-European sovereign cloud set-up with geo-redundancy.

German market

The structure is intended to give customers in Germany, France and elsewhere in Europe a disaster recovery option across the two sovereign regions while keeping data within European-controlled environments.

Christoph Ruffner, Chief Executive Officer and Country Director of Thales in Germany, said demand from German organisations had shaped the partnership. "Germany represents a critical market for sovereign technologies, and this partnership is a direct response to private and public sector German organizations wanting access to Google Cloud's technology under full German control. By launching this locally operated infrastructure, we are delivering a solution that guarantees sensitive workloads remain protected from any extraterritorial reach while meeting the unique security and compliance requirements of our customers," Ruffner said.

Google Cloud presented the agreement as part of a broader push around digital sovereignty in Europe. "Our partnership with Thales in Germany represents a significant milestone in our commitment to digital sovereignty in Germany and Europe. By combining the power and scale of Google Cloud with Thales' deep expertise in cybersecurity and local operational control, we are enabling German organizations even in the most sensitive sectors to innovate with confidence, while meeting the specific legal and operational safeguards required by the local regulatory landscape," said Marianne Janik, vice president, EMEA North, Google Cloud.

European model

Thales is positioning the German service as a counterpart to its French operation under S3NS. S3NS secured SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification for its PREMI3NS offering at the end of 2025, and Thales now plans to seek different local certifications across both regions.

Hélène Bringer, President of S3NS and Vice-President, Critical Information Systems at Thales, said the two-region structure would address compliance and resilience demands for multinational users. "S3NS highly welcomes this new partnership. With this German region, we are building a European first: by aiming for both 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. And by providing this multi-region sovereign cloud capability, we will enable European organizations to benefit from enhanced resilience, without ever compromising on sovereignty," Bringer said.

The announcement reflects a broader trend in Europe as cloud providers and their partners adapt to tighter rules on where sensitive information is stored, who can administer systems, and how public sector and critical industry workloads are protected. Germany has been a particular focus because of its regulatory environment and the demands of customers in healthcare, finance and government.

Thales has an established industrial presence in Germany, with 2,300 employees across nine sites, and said that local base underpins the new venture. Employee representatives will be informed and consulted on the project.

Customer interest

Several customers and partners backed the project, including groups in healthcare, finance, consulting and public sector technology. Their comments suggest demand is coming from organisations that want access to large-scale cloud services without giving up local oversight of sensitive data.

Among the clearest endorsements came from the German healthcare sector. "The digital transformation of statutory health insurance will be built upon the foundation of modern AI and cloud technology. This will be crucial for enabling us to continue operating efficiently and with a strong customer focus in the market, particularly in light of the impending challenges facing the healthcare insurance system as a whole. At the same time, the healthcare sector is - quite rightly - subject to the strictest regulatory requirements. We are following the partnership between Thales Germany and Google Cloud with great interest; we welcome the availability of such solution approaches on the market, and, by extension, the implementation of solutions that fully comply with regulatory standards. They demonstrate that digital innovation and uncompromising data security can indeed go hand in hand - an absolute prerequisite for earning the trust of customers and policyholders," said Sebastian Angerstein, IT project and solution management lead, AOK Niedersachsen.

In financial markets, Deutsche Börse also highlighted the importance of digital sovereignty for regulated operations. "Financial markets thrive on integrity, and digital sovereignty is an indispensable building block in this regard. It sends an important signal to the market that, through Google Cloud Dedicated in conjunction with Thales, a solution is being created that combines technological excellence with resilient, cross-border infrastructure. Such offerings create further opportunities to securely and reliably scale highly regulated processes in the cloud," said Dr. Christoph Böhm, member of the executive board of Deutsche Börse AG and chief information officer/chief operating officer.