OVHcloud

What Is OVHcloud?

If you have ever evaluated AWS or Google Cloud for a European project, you have almost certainly encountered the same friction: data residency questions, GDPR transfer concerns, and the nagging awareness that your infrastructure ultimately answers to US jurisdiction. OVHcloud is the most direct European answer to that problem — and unlike most alternatives, it operates at genuine scale.

Founded in 1999 by Octave Klaba in Roubaix, France, OVHcloud has grown into Europe's largest cloud infrastructure provider. The company is publicly traded on Euronext Paris, operates over 40 data centers across four continents, and — unusually for a cloud provider — manufactures its own servers in its own factories. This vertical integration gives OVHcloud a cost structure that consistently undercuts the hyperscalers, often by 50-70% for equivalent compute.

Where AWS wins on breadth and GCP wins on data analytics, OVHcloud wins on infrastructure economics and sovereignty. Its product line spans dedicated servers (its historical strength), a full OpenStack-based public cloud, managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, private cloud (VMware and Nutanix), and increasingly, GPU infrastructure for AI workloads. The company holds SecNumCloud qualification from ANSSI — the French government's highest cloud security certification — making it one of very few providers approved for sovereign government workloads.

OVHcloud is not trying to replicate every AWS service. It is building the infrastructure layer that European organisations need when data sovereignty, cost control, and hardware transparency matter more than having 200+ managed services.

Key Features

Dedicated Servers and Bare Metal

OVHcloud's roots are in dedicated servers, and this remains one of its strongest offerings. You can provision bare metal machines with Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC processors, custom RAM and storage configurations, and unmetered bandwidth starting at 500 Mbps. Because OVHcloud manufactures its own servers and uses proprietary water-cooling technology, pricing is exceptionally competitive. For workloads that need consistent performance without noisy-neighbour effects — databases, game servers, rendering pipelines — dedicated servers remain hard to beat.

Public Cloud (OpenStack)

OVHcloud's public cloud is built on OpenStack, the open-source cloud operating system. This means standard APIs, Terraform compatibility, and no proprietary lock-in. You get instances, block storage, object storage (S3-compatible), managed databases, load balancers, and private networking. The service is billed hourly, and pricing typically runs 50-60% below equivalent AWS EC2 instances.

The trade-off is maturity. Some managed services — like serverless functions or fully managed message queues — are either absent or less polished than their AWS/GCP equivalents. If you need a broad catalogue of managed services, you will feel the gaps. If you primarily need compute, storage, and networking, the OpenStack foundation is solid.

Managed Kubernetes

OVHcloud offers a managed Kubernetes service where the control plane is free — you only pay for worker nodes running on Public Cloud instances. It supports standard Kubernetes APIs, Helm charts, and integrates with OVHcloud's private networking (vRack). For teams already running containerised workloads, this is a cost-effective way to get managed orchestration without the per-cluster fees that AWS EKS or GCP GKE charge.

vRack Private Networking

The vRack is OVHcloud's private networking backbone, allowing you to create isolated networks spanning multiple data centers and products — dedicated servers, Public Cloud instances, and private cloud all connected on a private Layer 2 network. This is genuinely useful for hybrid architectures where you want bare metal performance for some workloads and cloud elasticity for others, all on the same private network.

AI and GPU Infrastructure

OVHcloud has invested heavily in NVIDIA GPU infrastructure for AI training and inference. You can provision bare metal GPU servers or use their AI Training managed service with pre-configured environments for PyTorch and TensorFlow. For European AI teams that need GPU compute without sending training data to US providers, this fills an important gap.

Pricing

OVHcloud's pricing is its most compelling differentiator against the hyperscalers. The company's vertical integration — manufacturing its own servers, operating its own data centers, using proprietary cooling — gives it structural cost advantages that translate into meaningfully lower prices.

VPS instances start from around 4 EUR per month. Public Cloud instances are billed hourly with no minimum commitment, and a general-purpose instance with 2 vCPU and 8 GB RAM runs approximately 26 EUR per month — roughly half what the same specification costs on AWS. Dedicated servers with enterprise-grade processors start from around 70 EUR per month, including unmetered bandwidth that would cost hundreds extra on AWS.

Managed Kubernetes has no control plane fee. You pay only for worker node instances. Object storage is priced per GB with egress charges that are significantly lower than AWS S3.

Enterprise and private cloud pricing is custom but follows the same logic: meaningfully cheaper than hyperscaler equivalents, especially for bandwidth-heavy and compute-intensive workloads.

EU Compliance & Data Privacy

OVHcloud's compliance story is one of the strongest in European cloud infrastructure. As a French company listed on Euronext Paris, it operates entirely under EU jurisdiction. There is no US parent company, no CLOUD Act exposure, and no ambiguity about data sovereignty.

The company holds ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 1, and SOC 2 Type II certifications. For French healthcare data, it has HDS (Health Data Hosting) certification. Most significantly, OVHcloud has achieved SecNumCloud qualification from ANSSI — the French government's cloud security standard — for specific products, making it one of the few providers approved for hosting the most sensitive government workloads.

For organisations subject to GDPR, the combination of EU headquarters, EU data centers, and comprehensive certifications eliminates the cross-border data transfer concerns that affect US-headquartered providers.

Who It's Best For

Cost-conscious infrastructure teams running compute-heavy workloads where the hyperscaler premium is hard to justify. The dedicated server pricing alone can transform infrastructure budgets.

EU-regulated organisations in finance, healthcare, or government that need cloud infrastructure with clear data sovereignty and no US jurisdiction exposure. SecNumCloud qualification adds an extra layer of assurance.

DevOps teams comfortable with OpenStack who want standard APIs, Terraform support, and no proprietary lock-in. If you are already running Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code, OVHcloud fits cleanly into existing workflows.

Hybrid architecture builders who need bare metal performance for some workloads and cloud elasticity for others, connected via private networking.

The Verdict

OVHcloud is not a hyperscaler clone — it is a fundamentally different proposition. Where AWS and GCP compete on breadth of managed services, OVHcloud competes on infrastructure economics, hardware transparency, and EU sovereignty. The management console is dated, some managed services lag behind, and support can be inconsistent. But for organisations that prioritise cost efficiency and data sovereignty over having every possible managed service, OVHcloud delivers genuine value that the hyperscalers cannot match — at prices they cannot undercut.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OVHcloud a viable alternative to AWS for production workloads?

Yes, for infrastructure-focused workloads. OVHcloud excels at compute, storage, dedicated servers, and Kubernetes. Where it falls short is the breadth of managed services — if you rely heavily on services like AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, or SQS, you will need alternatives or self-managed solutions.

How reliable is OVHcloud?

OVHcloud offers SLAs of 99.95-99.99% depending on the product. The 2021 Strasbourg data center fire raised legitimate questions about disaster recovery, and OVHcloud has since invested in improved fire prevention, backup infrastructure, and geographic redundancy. Multi-region deployment is recommended for critical workloads.

Does OVHcloud support Terraform?

Yes. OVHcloud has an official Terraform provider covering Public Cloud resources, DNS, databases, and Kubernetes. The OpenStack foundation also means you can use the OpenStack Terraform provider for many resources.

What is the difference between OVHcloud Public Cloud and Private Cloud?

Public Cloud is the shared, OpenStack-based IaaS offering with hourly billing. Private Cloud provides dedicated VMware or Nutanix infrastructure for organisations that need isolation, compliance certifications (like SecNumCloud), or specific hypervisor features.

How does OVHcloud handle data sovereignty?

OVHcloud is a French company with no US parent entity. Data stored in EU data centers stays under EU jurisdiction. SecNumCloud-qualified products meet the highest French government security standards. The company has explicitly positioned itself as the European sovereign cloud alternative.