European Cloud Providers
There is a growing landscape of European cloud providers. While all of them offer the basic IaaS services, such as VMs and managed databases, there are differences in the PaaS offering, in AI and in serverless services.
Scaleway
Scaleway is cloud provider with a good set of higher-level services, such as managed AI and serverless services services, e.g. a serverless container service and a serverless database.
With a history going back to 1999, Scaleway has a proven track record and has one of the most advanced cloud service portfolios in the European landscape.
OVHcloud
OVHcloud is a mature cloud provider with 43 data centers across 9 countries, including Canada and Singapore.
OVHcloud are offering public cloud services, including higher-level services, e.g. for data platform, web hosting packages and Hosted Private Cloud and a global CDN.
Open Telekom Cloud
Open Telekom Cloud is operated by Deutsche Telekom AG.
Open Telekom Cloud offers a range of IaaS cloud services. Furthermore, they are offering higher-level services including managed Kubernetes, big data services, managed AI and serverless functions.
Deutsche Telekom AG is also operating the sovereign version of GCP.
STACKIT
STACKIT is the newcomer, officially lanuched in 2024. STACKIT has very high momentum at the moment. The cloud service portfolio is still being built up.
STACKIT is backed by the Schwarz group, the largest retail company in Europe, based in Germany.
STACKIT targets business clients in the DACH region. It is not available for private users.
Exoscale
Exoscale offer a full range of IaaS services. Especially noteworthy are the DBaaS services for managed Apache Kafka, managed OpenSearch and managed Grafana.
Exoscale are operating 7 data centers across Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Bulgaria.
Exoscale is owned by A1, the Austrian telecommunication company.
IONOS
IONOS is a German hosting and domain provider that is offering more and more cloud computing products.
The company was formely known as 1&1 Internet. It was rebranded to reflect the development from a pure hosting provider to a service provider with a broad portfolio.
The public cloud service encompasses the typical building blocks around VPCs, managed database, managed Kubernetes, etc.
Sovereign US Cloud Solutions
Sovereign Cloud solutions are a good alternative when cloud capabilities of Azure, AWS or GCP are required, and sovereignty is needed as well. The hyperscalers are taking different approaches on how to fulfill sovereignity requirements for their customers.
T-Systems Sovereign Cloud powered by Google Cloud
The sovereign variant of Google Cloud is operated by T-Systems.
The cloud software stack is provided by Google, but the cloud instance is completely controlled by T-Systems, independent and separate of the other GCP regions.
Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty
Microsoft was the first US hyperscaler to offer a sovereign cloud instance with the Microsoft Cloud Germany. This service has been discontinued in 2020.
These days, Microsoft is pursuing a different path by offering services and guardrails specifically for sovereignity needs, e.g. the Sovereign Landing Zone and the EU Data Boundary.
AWS European Sovereign Cloud
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud offering is a separate AWS region, independent of the rest of AWS. Unlike the sovereign GCP variant, AWS are operating the region themselves with European staff.
The physical separation of the region ensures that all data, e.g. IAM and support data stays on European soil.
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is planned for go-live end of 2025 in a data center in Brandenburg.
Oracle Sovereign Cloud
Oracle provides a range of solutions to ensure sovereignty within the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. These include sovereign instances hosted in a customer’s own data center, dedicated instances designed specifically for organizations such as government institutions, and shared cloud instances that comply with EU regulations, such as the Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud.
The Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud is managed by EU-based legal entities that own the hardware, maintain the data center leases, and handle all operations and support, ensuring compliance with regional sovereignty requirements.
Delos Cloud
Delos Cloud is dedicated to delivering a fully sovereign version of Microsoft services, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365. This solution is specifically tailored to address the needs of Germany’s public sector, aiming to reconcile the reliance on Microsoft products with the strict sovereignty requirements mandated by the region.
A subsidiary of SAP SE, Delos Cloud is still in the development phase, with its full suite of services not yet operational. However, interested customers can explore the platform and its capabilities in a dedicated simulation environment.