Strategic partnership to be the first to deliver Google Distributed Cloud Hosted - a disconnected sovereign cloud solution - to governments, regulated enterprises and international organisations in Europe

Press Release

Brussels, Luxembourg, March 15, 2023: Proximus and Google Cloud, today announced a five-year agreement to deliver sovereign cloud services in Belgium and Luxembourg. This partnership will help securely deploy sensitive, mission-critical workloads and provide next-generation digital sovereignty controls for governments, regulated enterprises and international organisations.

Under this agreement, sovereign cloud services will support disconnected operations through Google Distributed Cloud Hosted, which does not require connectivity to Google Cloud to manage infrastructure, services, APIs, or tooling. Google Cloud’s sovereign solutions are designed to support data, operational and software sovereignty requirements, increasing customer control and transparency for sensitive data moving to the cloud.

“Data sovereignty is vital to European and international organisations as they digitise their operations and deploy the latest cloud innovations '' said Adaire Fox-Martin, President of Google Cloud Go to Market & Head of Google Ireland. “These sovereign cloud solutions will help ensure that public and private-sector organisations can advance their digital transformation agendas using the latest technologies without compromising on the security and sovereignty of their data and systems.”

Proximus plans to work with LuxConnect, a data center service provider owned by the Luxembourg state, to bring these sovereign solutions to life in Belgium and Luxembourg.

“Sovereign cloud has been on Luxembourg’s digital agenda for many years and will fill an important gap in our strategy to become a trusted digital hub from which we serve the most demanding public and private clients.” said Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg.

“We are extremely proud to announce the first Google cloud disconnected solution in the Belux region. This is a major milestone as Proximus, partnering notably with LuxConnect, will be able to guarantee full operational sovereignty for its clients – on EU’s terms. Proximus will moreover leverage its vast cloud services experience in order to bring these disconnected cloud services to the Belgium and Luxembourg markets.” says Guillaume Boutin, CEO of Proximus

This agreement combines the strengths of both partners - Google Cloud’s trusted leadership and innovation with the power of Proximus’ experienced teams to deliver a unique offering in the region” said Paul Konsbruck, CEO of LuxConnect.