OVHcloud vs Microsoft Azure

Why Switch from Microsoft Azure to OVHcloud?

Microsoft Azure is a US cloud platform subject to the CLOUD Act, which means the US government can request access to data stored on Azure servers — even those located in EU data centers. Microsoft’s own transparency reports confirm thousands of government data requests each year.

OVHcloud is the largest European-born cloud provider, headquartered in France with data centers across Europe. As a European company under EU jurisdiction, OVHcloud offers genuine data sovereignty that Azure fundamentally cannot provide, regardless of which Azure region you choose.

Feature Comparison

Feature	OVHcloud	Microsoft Azure
Virtual machines	✅ VPS and Public Cloud	✅ Azure VMs
Bare metal	✅ Dedicated Servers	✅ Bare Metal (limited)
Managed Kubernetes	✅ Managed K8s	✅ AKS
Object storage	✅ S3-compatible	✅ Blob Storage
Managed databases	✅ PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB	✅ Extensive catalog
Data location	Europe 🇪🇺	Global (US-controlled) 🇺🇸
GDPR compliant	✅ Full (EU entity)	⚠️ Partial (US entity)
Pricing transparency	✅ Predictable, flat-rate	⚠️ Complex, variable
Anti-lock-in policy	✅ Reversible cloud	❌ Proprietary ecosystem
Sovereignty cloud	✅ SecNumCloud	⚠️ EU Data Boundary (still US entity)

Pricing

OVHcloud is known for straightforward, predictable pricing — a stark contrast to Azure’s billing complexity:

• OVHcloud VPS Starter: From €3.50/month (1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD)
• OVHcloud VPS Value: From €5.50/month (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD)
• OVHcloud Dedicated Server: From €59.99/month (Xeon, 32 GB RAM, 2x 480 GB SSD)
• Azure B1s VM: ~€8.40/month (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM)
• Azure B2s VM: ~€33.60/month (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)

OVHcloud also includes generous bandwidth allowances and does not charge punitive egress fees, which can add up significantly on Azure.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

OVHcloud leads the European cloud sovereignty movement:

• Headquartered in Roubaix, France — fully under EU and French jurisdiction
• Over 40 data centers, with core infrastructure across Europe
• Founding member of GAIA-X, the European initiative for federated cloud infrastructure
• Pursuing SecNumCloud certification for sovereign cloud workloads
• “Reversible cloud” philosophy: OVHcloud actively works to prevent vendor lock-in
• No data is subject to extraterritorial US law (unlike Azure, even in EU regions)
• OVHcloud does not use your data for advertising or AI training

Migration Guide

Migrating from Azure to OVHcloud depends on the complexity of your workloads, but a typical infrastructure migration takes two to six weeks.

1. Audit your Azure resources — Document all virtual machines, storage accounts, databases, and networking configurations. Identify which services are standard (VMs, storage, Kubernetes) and which are Azure-specific (Cosmos DB, Azure Functions). Standard services migrate easily; Azure-specific services need alternatives. (1-2 days)
2. Set up your OVHcloud account and project — Create an OVHcloud account, set up a Public Cloud project, and configure networking (vRack for private networking, floating IPs for public access). Familiarize yourself with the OVHcloud control panel and API. (2-4 hours)
3. Migrate virtual machines — Export Azure VM disk images in VHD format, convert to QCOW2 if needed, and import into OVHcloud Public Cloud. Alternatively, use tools like rsync or Clonezilla for live migration. Reconfigure networking and DNS after migration. (1-2 days per VM)
4. Migrate databases — Use native database dump and restore tools (pg_dump for PostgreSQL, mysqldump for MySQL) to move data to OVHcloud managed databases or self-managed instances. Test data integrity and application connectivity before cutover. (1-2 days per database)
5. Migrate object storage — Use rclone or s3cmd to synchronize data from Azure Blob Storage to OVHcloud S3-compatible Object Storage. OVHcloud’s S3 compatibility means most applications need only an endpoint and credential change. (Variable, depending on data volume)
6. Update DNS and monitoring — Point your domains to the new OVHcloud infrastructure. Set up monitoring, alerting, and backup schedules. Run both environments in parallel during a transition period to verify everything works correctly. (1-2 weeks overlap)

Estimated total time: 2-6 weeks for a typical mid-sized deployment. Difficulty: Moderate to advanced — familiarity with Linux administration and cloud infrastructure is recommended.

Real-World Use Cases

French healthcare company achieves SecNumCloud compliance — A health-tech company managing patient data migrated from Azure to OVHcloud’s Hosted Private Cloud to meet France’s HDS (Health Data Hosting) certification requirements. The SecNumCloud-qualified infrastructure ensures that sensitive medical data is processed entirely under French jurisdiction, which Azure could not guarantee due to its US parent company.

German e-commerce startup cuts cloud costs by 45 percent — A Berlin-based e-commerce startup moved its Kubernetes-based platform from Azure to OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes. The predictable flat-rate pricing and free egress bandwidth eliminated the surprise Azure bills that had been exceeding their budget. Monthly infrastructure costs dropped from roughly 4,200 euros to 2,300 euros for equivalent compute and storage resources.

Polish government agency ensures digital sovereignty — A Polish government agency responsible for citizen services migrated its web applications and databases from Azure to OVHcloud’s Warsaw data center. The migration was driven by a policy mandate requiring all citizen data to be hosted by EU-owned providers, free from US CLOUD Act exposure. OVHcloud’s reversible cloud practices also addressed the agency’s concerns about vendor lock-in.

Company Background

OVHcloud was founded in 1999 by Octave Klaba in Roubaix, France, originally as a web hosting company under the name OVH. From humble beginnings in northern France, Klaba built the company into Europe’s largest cloud provider by taking a vertically integrated approach: OVHcloud designs and assembles its own servers, builds its own data centers, and manages its own global fiber network. This level of vertical integration is unique among major cloud providers and gives OVHcloud direct control over its supply chain and hardware costs.

The company went public on the Euronext Paris stock exchange in October 2021, raising approximately 350 million euros. Today, OVHcloud employs over 2,500 people and operates more than 40 data centers across four continents, with the majority concentrated in Europe. The company serves over 1.6 million customers worldwide, ranging from individual developers to large enterprises and public sector organizations.

OVHcloud is a founding member of GAIA-X, the European initiative for federated cloud infrastructure, and has been a vocal advocate for European digital sovereignty. The company’s commitment to environmental sustainability is reflected in its proprietary water-cooling technology for servers, which significantly reduces energy consumption compared to traditional air-cooling methods used by most data centers. OVHcloud has set a target of using 100% renewable energy across its European data centers.

Security & Compliance

OVHcloud maintains a comprehensive security framework designed to meet the requirements of regulated industries and European sovereignty standards.

• ISO 27001 certified across all major data centers, ensuring systematic information security management
• SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II reports available for enterprise customers requiring third-party assurance
• HDS (Hébergement de Données de Santé) certified in France for hosting healthcare and patient data
• SecNumCloud qualification in progress from ANSSI (French National Agency for Information Systems Security), the highest cloud security certification in France
• PCI DSS compliant infrastructure options for organizations handling payment card data
• Physical security includes biometric access controls, 24/7 surveillance, and on-site security staff at all data centers
• DDoS protection included as standard across all services, with OVHcloud’s VAC (Vacuum) mitigation system processing traffic at up to 20 Tbps capacity

Integration Ecosystem

OVHcloud provides a broad integration ecosystem designed to support modern DevOps workflows and avoid vendor lock-in through open standards.

• OpenStack-based Public Cloud API enabling compatibility with standard OpenStack tooling and libraries
• S3-compatible Object Storage allowing seamless migration from AWS S3 or any S3-compatible service using existing tools and SDKs
• Terraform provider officially maintained for infrastructure-as-code deployment and management
• Ansible modules available for automating server provisioning, configuration, and orchestration
• CNCF-certified Managed Kubernetes compatible with standard Helm charts, kubectl, and the broader Kubernetes ecosystem
• CLI and REST APIs available for all major services, with SDKs in Python, Go, Node.js, and other languages
• vRack private networking supporting hybrid cloud architectures connecting OVHcloud with on-premises infrastructure
• Marketplace with partner integrations including Plesk, cPanel, Docker, and various monitoring and backup solutions

Who Should Switch?

OVHcloud is ideal for:

• EU enterprises that need genuine European data sovereignty, not just an EU data center label
• Public sector organizations subject to strict procurement and data residency rules
• Cost-conscious businesses tired of unpredictable Azure billing
• Companies seeking bare metal performance at competitive European prices
• Organizations that want to avoid vendor lock-in with reversible cloud practices

The Bottom Line

OVHcloud is the leading European cloud provider for a reason: it offers genuine EU data sovereignty, predictable pricing, and strong infrastructure — especially for VPS, dedicated servers, and managed Kubernetes. Azure has a broader catalog of managed services and a larger global footprint, but it cannot offer true European data sovereignty as a US company.

For European businesses where data sovereignty, pricing transparency, and anti-lock-in matter, OVHcloud is the natural choice. If you need highly specialized PaaS services, you may still need Azure or a hybrid approach — but for core infrastructure, OVHcloud delivers.

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Looking for more European alternatives in this category? See also: Hetzner and Scaleway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I migrate my existing Azure virtual machines to OVHcloud?

Yes. OVHcloud provides migration tools and documentation for moving workloads from Azure. For virtual machines, you can export disk images and import them into OVHcloud Public Cloud. OVHcloud also supports standard formats like QCOW2 and VMDK, making cross-platform migration straightforward.

Does OVHcloud offer managed Kubernetes like Azure AKS?

Yes. OVHcloud provides a fully managed Kubernetes service that is CNCF-certified. It includes automatic updates, scaling, and integration with OVHcloud's load balancers and storage. The service is compatible with standard Kubernetes tooling, so existing Helm charts and manifests work without modification.

How does OVHcloud's pricing compare to Azure for typical workloads?

OVHcloud is generally 30 to 60 percent cheaper than Azure for comparable compute and storage resources. The key difference is pricing transparency: OVHcloud uses flat-rate monthly pricing with generous bandwidth included, while Azure charges variable rates with egress fees that can significantly inflate your bill.

Is OVHcloud truly independent from US jurisdiction and the CLOUD Act?

Yes. OVHcloud is a French company listed on the Paris stock exchange, fully owned and operated in Europe. It is not subject to the US CLOUD Act or any extraterritorial US legislation. Data stored on OVHcloud servers cannot be requested by US authorities without going through EU legal channels.

What certifications does OVHcloud hold for regulated industries?

OVHcloud holds ISO 27001, SOC 1/2/3, and HDS (health data hosting) certifications. It is also pursuing SecNumCloud certification from the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI, which is the highest level of cloud security certification in France and increasingly recognized across the EU.