Scaleway

Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering a full ecosystem of infrastructure services including bare metal servers, virtual instances, GPU for AI, Kubernetes, serverless, storage, and databases, with a focus on European data sovereignty, sustainability, and developer-friendly tools.

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Belangrijkste Kenmerken

Elastic Metal provides on-demand bare metal instances like Aluminium, Iridium, and GPU-equipped Titanium models. Deployment takes minutes via API, with models tailored for general compute, storage-intensive tasks, or AI. Users avoid virtualization overhead for better performance in databases or gaming servers. Models start around €0.02 per hour, with full root access and custom images.

High-end GPUs such as NVIDIA L40S, H100, and B300-SXM support AI training and inference. Custom GPU clusters scale for large models. Additional AI services include generative APIs and managed inference. These integrate with Kubernetes for orchestration, serving needs from startups to research labs without vendor lock-in.

Kapsule offers managed Kubernetes clusters, while Kosmos enables multi-cloud setups. Databases cover PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, and ClickHouse as managed services. Storage options include object (S3-compatible), block, and Glacier for archiving. Serverless Functions, Containers, and Jobs handle event-driven workloads. All scale automatically.

Nine data centers consume renewable energy, hitting a 1.15 PUE. Locations ensure low latency in Paris (multi-AZ), Amsterdam, and Warsaw. Networking features private VPCs, load balancers, WAF, and global anycast IPs. Tools like CLI and Terraform simplify management.

Scaleway: European Cloud Computing Built for Sovereignty and Sustainability

Scaleway runs data centers with Europe's lowest reported power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, relying on renewable energy sources across nine facilities mainly in France, with sites in Amsterdam and Warsaw. This setup supports a range of cloud services from bare metal servers to AI-focused GPUs, all hosted within the European Union.

The company, based in Paris, traces its roots to 1999 when Xavier Niel founded it under the Iliad Group banner. It started with web hosting and domain services before expanding into dedicated servers via the Dedibox line in 2006. By 2013, Scaleway launched as an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform, pioneering ARM-based bare metal instances priced from €0.02 per hour—a first worldwide. x86 support followed in 2016. Today, it serves over 38,000 customers in 160 countries through 65 points of presence, employing more than 550 people. Offerings span Elastic Metal servers, virtual instances, high-performance GPUs like NVIDIA H100 and L40S, serverless functions, managed Kubernetes clusters (Kapsule and multi-cloud Kosmos), object and block storage, and databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB. Networking includes VPCs, load balancers, and a web application firewall. Developer tools cover API access, CLI, and Terraform integration. Scaleway targets workloads in AI, gaming, finance, healthcare, and public services, with programs like the Founders Program for startups.

What is Scaleway?

Scaleway emerged from Online SAS, or Online.net, a web hosting and domain registrar established in 1999 by Xavier Niel, now majority-owned by Iliad Group. Headquartered in Paris, it initially focused on hosting before introducing Dedibox dedicated servers in 2006. The brands unified in 2010. The Scaleway platform debuted between 2013 and 2015 with ARM-based cloud servers, undercutting competitors at €0.02 per hour. This innovation drew developers seeking affordable, high-performance compute.

Growth accelerated with x86 bare metal in 2016, followed by expansions into virtual private servers, object storage, and Kubernetes management. Recent milestones include Europe's first RISC-V servers in 2024, the Nabuchodonosor AI supercomputer in 2023, and Apple M-series Mac minis offered as a service since 2021. Data centers use free cooling and adiabatic systems for efficiency. Scaleway holds HDS certification for health data and pursues SecNumCloud qualification. No egress fees apply to most products, and pricing remains transparent. Support operates 24/7.

Who Uses Scaleway?

Developers and startups favor Scaleway for its API-driven tools and low entry costs, with the Founders Program providing credits. Enterprises in gaming run high-traffic workloads on bare metal. Finance and healthcare leverage certified infrastructure for compliance. Public sector clients value sovereignty. AI firms use GPU clusters for model training.

Notable users include Mistral AI and Hugging Face for compute-intensive tasks. Over 38,000 customers span 160 countries, from small teams prototyping on virtual instances to large operations scaling Kubernetes across zones.

European Advantage

Headquartered in Paris with a European team, Scaleway keeps data in EU data centers—primarily France, plus Amsterdam and Warsaw—for sovereignty. It complies fully with GDPR, enabling safe handling of personal data without transatlantic transfers. Certifications like HDS for health data and SecNumCloud pursuit appeal to regulated industries. No egress fees reduce costs for EU-internal traffic. Renewable-powered facilities align with green regulations, offering lower carbon footprints than many rivals.

How Scaleway Compares

Scaleway stands out from OVHcloud—another French provider—with stronger sustainability (1.15 PUE vs. higher averages) and AI-focused GPUs, though OVH offers broader global reach. Against U.S.-based DigitalOcean and Vultr, it provides superior data sovereignty and GDPR tools, avoiding risks of non-EU data flows. All share developer-friendly pricing, but Scaleway's ARM/RISC-V pioneering and no-egress policy suit European startups seeking hyperscaler alternatives without lock-in.

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Veelgestelde Vragen

Scaleway uses pay-as-you-go pricing, with instances from €0.02 per hour or €4.99 per month. No perpetual free tier exists, but startup programs like Founders offer credits up to €36,000. Egress includes 75GB free monthly on some plans.

Yes. Scaleway's services meet GDPR requirements, with data residency in EU data centers (France, Netherlands, Poland). It provides tools for data processing agreements and holds relevant certifications.

- **OVHcloud**: French rival with larger scale and global data centers, but higher PUE. - **DigitalOcean**: U.S.-based, strong on simplicity and droplets, less focus on sovereignty. - **Vultr**: Global provider with competitive bare metal, U.S. headquartered.