Airbus Drops AWS for French Scaleway in Digital Sovereignty Maneuver

Aerospace giant prioritizes European control over sensitive data amid digital sovereignty and geopolitical tensions.

Airbus has begun migrating its most critical applications from Amazon Web Services to French cloud provider Scaleway, marking a significant shift in the aerospace giant's digital infrastructure strategy. The European manufacturer is transferring 70 of its most sensitive workloads initially, with plans to eventually move 900 applications total—including enterprise resource planning systems, manufacturing execution platforms, customer relationship management tools, and product lifecycle management software—to keep data operations firmly under European control.

Catherine Jestin, head of digital at Airbus, explained that “Scaleway's selection resulted from both technical capabilities and competitive commercial terms that rival major US hyperscalers. The partnership also includes Airbus's involvement in shaping Scaleway's future product development roadmap, giving the aerospace company influence over the platform's evolution.”

The move represents a strategic pivot toward what Airbus calls "Minimum Viable Company" infrastructure—applications deemed essential for core operations, sensitive defense, and industrial workloads. However, Airbus clarified it will maintain its relationship with AWS, continuing to host Skywise, an aviation data analytics platform, and its Case Management Assistant for customer technical support on the American provider's infrastructure.

The migration reflects broader European concerns about data sovereignty and foreign government access to critical information. The US Cloud Act permits American authorities to request data stored overseas by US-based technology companies, a provision that has intensified anxieties among European industrial firms handling sensitive defense and manufacturing information. These concerns have grown sharper since President Donald Trump's return to office, as his administration has adopted more confrontational stances toward traditional allies, creating heightened economic and geopolitical tensions across the Atlantic.

European cloud providers traditionally faced disadvantages competing against American giants due to scale limitations and technical capabilities gaps. However, companies like Scaleway have developed sufficiently to handle enterprise-grade workloads, making European alternatives more viable for organizations prioritizing data residency and regulatory compliance. The choice of Airbus indicates that cloud-computing issues now affect European industry at the highest levels. Since the aerospace leader has considerable defense contracts and sensitive technologies, the fact that it prefers European cloud infrastructure shows that it trusts local solutions. It also demonstrates the influence of international conflicts and regulatory issues connected with data sovereignty on the decision-making process of major industries regarding cloud computing.

Airbus is starting its transition to a new system slowly by migrating only 70 programs for now and planning to switch more than 900 in the future. The strategy protects the company against risks while verifying the performance of Scaleway. This transfer highlights a wider European strategy of reducing dependence on American platforms in many areas, including defense and industry. As the issue of digital sovereignty gains in importance among European countries, many companies may switch to cloud systems controlled by Europe.

Business Honor views that Airbus's migration to Scaleway represents a strategic pivot toward European digital sovereignty and operational resilience.