That is not currently planned. We primarily want our services within Europe to run on European infrastructure with a view to digital independence, greater control and as little vendor lock-in as possible.
not moving off US tech infra completely. Yet, European services on European infra is the goal. The nameserver infra is global, they say, so is that the carve-out, or are there other US vendors with EU datacenters in play?
The most crucial services run redundantly, both within AWS and in a Belgian data centre. In the event of a serious incident at AWS, zone signing, zone distribution and the database can be deployed immediately.
They have a redundant set-up. Meaning they could leave anytime, just need a new redundancy plan then. Makes it more realistic they will move next year.
Everything related to registering and managing the .be, .vlaanderen and .brussels domains runs within AWS, except for the name servers. The latter are the “GPS” servers that ensure that when you type in a domain name, you are sent to the correct IP address. These are spread across the globe.
Client facing interfaces run on AWS, registration, management of domains etc. Name servers are a global network. Makes it quite a bit less dramatic (both the before and after)
It is important that the nameserver infrastructure, which has never run on AWS, is not interrupted
the nameserver infra never ran on AWS.
Peter Vergote, legal advisor at DNS Belgium: "Our data and processes at AWS are located on European soil, spread across multiple data centres. This is perfectly in line with European legislation such as GDPR and NIS2 .
That is technically true, but not in practice. The 2018 Cloud Act makes all EU reg moot points from the US perspective. That makes any American involvement in your stack by def a breach of NIS2, GDPR and other digital and data related regs.
The migration away from AWS is still in its early stages. The market is currently being surveyed. The transition will begin in 2027 and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2027.
The decision is made, but transition still in early planning phases. To be completed 2027. Market survey ongoing, meaning there's no new contractor in sight as yet.
Beltug Priorities Compass, where sovereignty and the search for European alternatives are among the ten most important topics for Belgian CIOs and digital leaders.
European digital sovereignty and autonomy in the top ten concerns of Belgian CIOs
At the same time, DNS Belgium wants to inspire other organisations in Belgium and Europe with its AWS exit. Technological dependence on, or possible access and influence by non-European players, is a growing concern among Belgian companies.
DNS Belgium wants to set an example. It is also responding to concerns of their customers.
Since 2017, the system that processes the registrations of .be domain names has been located in AWS's European data centres.
DNS Belgium is on AWS since 2017, in EU data centers but that means nothing, definitely not since 2018
https://web.archive.org/web/20260106135449/https://www.dnsbelgium.be/en/news/dns-belgium-leaves-aws
DNS Belgium runs on AWS currently. Decided to leave AWS. Out of geopolitical concern.
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