Self-hosted / open sourceCloud IaaSHeadquarters: US

Google Distributed Cloud: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Google Distributed Cloud brings Google Cloud infrastructure and services to locations outside Google's own public cloud regions. Google describes two models: a connected mode, with Google-managed hardware deployed on site and tied to Google Cloud, and an air-gapped mode that is isolated from the public internet and designed to run without a connection to Google Cloud. The air-gapped model is offered as full data centre racks, a tactical appliance or a local sandbox.

Google Distributed Cloud is a product of Google, part of Alphabet and headquartered in the United States. Google positions the air-gapped variant as part of Google Sovereign Cloud, aimed at data residency, control of operational staffing and limiting jurisdictional exposure, and says operations can be run by Google, a trusted partner or both. Customers choose whether data stays in a local or a remote data centre. Google commits in its contracts to GDPR compliance for Google Cloud services. A European organisation should assess which jurisdiction governs support, updates and operators.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Google Distributed Cloud pre-selected

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Sovereignty score

57 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-210
Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
Data residency SOV-3100
Hosting inside and outside Europe (EU, US)
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-380
Closed source, but self-hostable: encryption keys and runtime under your own control
Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
Closed source: switching requires data migration
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-655
Closed source, but self-hostable on your own infrastructure

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 11, 2026

Headquarters	US (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision	Only for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Data hosting	Self-hosted, e.g. in EU, US (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-source	NoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Category	Cloud IaaS
Type	Product
Website	cloud.google.com ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Google Distributed Cloud

The European alternatives to Google Distributed Cloud come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

84 European Cloud IaaS vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Google Distributed Cloud

Google Distributed Cloud is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

Google Distributed Cloud runs on infrastructure you choose and control yourself. You decide where the data lives, including fully within the EU if you want — this is not a fixed hosting choice made by the vendor.

Google Distributed Cloud is closed source, but you run the software yourself on your own infrastructure. The encryption keys and the runtime therefore stay under your own control, though you cannot audit or modify the source code. Ask about export options and open standards to limit software-level lock-in.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Google Distributed Cloud together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Google Distributed Cloud?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Google Distributed Cloud include 1984 Hosting, acens and Aiven. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Google Distributed Cloud?

Our list of EU alternatives to Google Distributed Cloud is mostly commercial options. Browse the category on the map for open-source choices.

Is Google Distributed Cloud GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Google Distributed Cloud is headquartered in US and hosts data in EU, US. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 11, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Cloud IaaS

Cloud IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service — virtual machines, storage, networking. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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