OVHcloud Cloud Computing: Sovereign Infrastructure from France
OVHcloud powers 3.1% of all websites worldwide and serves more than 1.6 million customers. This French company operates 46 data centers across four continents and more than 19 countries, delivering cloud services with a clear European perspective. Founded in 1999 in Roubaix, near Lille, OVHcloud started as a web hosting provider but now offers a wide range of infrastructure solutions. Its emphasis on data control, environmental responsibility, and cost predictability sets it apart in a market dominated by U.S. giants.
The company builds its own servers in modular designs housed in shipping containers, which helps keep prices down while scaling efficiently. Network capacity tops 100 Tbit/s globally, and every service includes anti-DDoS protection at no extra cost. OVHcloud avoids practices like data resale or vendor lock-in, aligning with principles of openness and reversibility. Customers can export their data easily, ensuring flexibility. Recent expansions include new zones like Seattle and acquisitions such as gridscale, alongside commitments to low-carbon energy and zero waste by 2025. Despite a 2021 fire at its Strasbourg data center that caused significant disruption, OVHcloud rebounded with increased investments, planning €4-7 billion over five years post-IPO.
What is OVHcloud?
OVHcloud, legally known as OVH Groupe SA, traces its roots to November 2, 1999, when Octave Klaba founded it in Roubaix, France, with family support from Henryk, Halina, and Miroslaw Klaba. What began as a reseller of web hosting space quickly grew into server rental and colocation services. By the mid-2000s, OVHcloud was designing its own hardware, pioneering water-cooling and containerized data centers to cut costs and energy use.
Headquartered in Roubaix, the company went public on Euronext Paris in 2021, joining indices like CAC Small. It now provides VPS starting from basic plans to high-performance options, bare metal dedicated servers with custom configurations, public cloud on OpenStack, and hosted private clouds using VMware or Nutanix. Additional services cover domain registration, email, object storage, managed databases like PostgreSQL and MongoDB, Kubernetes, AI/ML tools, and even quantum computing access.
OVHcloud's infrastructure spans Europe heavily, with key sites in France, Germany, the UK, Poland, and more, plus presence in North America, Asia, and Australia. It manufactures servers with standard parts for easy repairs and reuse across up to three lifecycles. The 2021 Strasbourg incident highlighted risks but also resilience, as OVHcloud settled lawsuits and enhanced backups. Today, it partners with entities like Let's Encrypt for certificates and Super Micro for hardware, while pursuing sovereign cloud certifications like France's SecNumCloud for its Bare Metal Pod in 2025.
Who Uses OVHcloud?
OVHcloud caters to enterprises, SMEs, developers, gaming firms, public sector, healthcare, finance, and startups. Websites and e-commerce sites rely on its hosting and VPS for reliability. Big data teams use object storage and analytics; HPC workloads leverage Scale servers.
Public sector clients value sovereign options for regulated data. Finance and healthcare choose it for GDPR-aligned storage. Gaming companies deploy low-latency dedicated servers. Developers appreciate Kubernetes and managed databases for quick scaling. Use cases span disaster recovery, SAP HANA hosting, hybrid clouds, and AI training. While specific customer names vary, sectors like media and retail report migrations for cost savings and compliance.
European Advantage
Based in France with teams across Europe, OVHcloud keeps data under EU jurisdiction by default in its 30+ European data centers. It complies fully with GDPR, offering tools for data processing agreements and residency choices. Sovereign cloud products meet standards like France's SecNumCloud, vital for defense or health data.
No U.S. parent company means less exposure to foreign laws like CLOUD Act. Roubaix HQ oversees operations, ensuring cultural alignment for European users. This setup supports public tenders requiring local control.
How OVHcloud Compares
OVHcloud positions as an open alternative to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. AWS leads in scale but often incurs egress fees and lock-in via proprietary tools. Azure ties to Microsoft ecosystem; GCP excels in AI but stores data in U.S.-linked regions.
OVHcloud matches hyperscaler breadth at lower entry prices, with no outbound bandwidth costs and full OpenStack compatibility for easy switches. Its European base aids sovereignty, absent in U.S. providers. Sustainability metrics outpace most, and anti-DDoS is standard. For hybrid needs, vRack integrates on-premises gear without premiums.
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