European Cloud, Global Reach

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Use of US Infrastructure and Data Sovereignty

  • Several comments note the irony of a “European cloud” fronting traffic through Cloudflare (including login/dashboard) and loading Google Tag Manager.
  • Critics argue that any US provider (even with EU PoPs) remains subject to US laws and surveillance, undermining the “Europe-only” privacy pitch.
  • Others counter that UpCloud’s actual servers and management are in Europe and that the main services not going through US CDNs would mitigate concerns, though this is disputed.
  • Use of Equinix data centers (US company) raises similar questions; some say only power/space come from Equinix and encryption + EU jurisdiction still meaningfully improve privacy, others see any US link as a problem for strict threat models.

Privacy, Law Enforcement, and Trust

  • There’s an extended debate over whether US hyperscalers can ever truly meet EU digital sovereignty requirements (Patriot Act/CLOUD Act vs EU frameworks).
  • One side asserts US law makes genuine sovereignty impossible; another claims new EU-partitioned regions (like AWS’s) can be legally structured to resist US demands.
  • Broader discussion shifts from “privacy” to “sovereignty”: concern that US political instability and unilateral control over infrastructure (sanctions, military gear, cloud) have permanently eroded trust.
  • Others push back that EU governments also conduct surveillance and data retention, and that EU rights are not clearly superior in practice.

Reliability and Architecture Choices

  • Some users hit Cloudflare 504 errors on UpCloud’s site; others in different regions report it working fine.
  • A few report multi‑year positive experience: stable VMs, good UI, and responsive 24/7 technical support.
  • Several consider it odd or “ridiculous” for a cloud provider to rely on a competing cloud/CDN (Cloudflare) for critical properties like login.

Pricing, Egress, and Marketing Claims

  • UpCloud’s “zero-cost egress” is heavily scrutinized: traffic is free up to a fair-use quota, after which bandwidth is throttled to 100 Mbps unless you opt into €0.01/GB paid transfer.
  • Critics call the marketing “blatantly deceptive” given the small bundled transfer compared to EU rivals (Hetzner/OVH) and the “never pay for transfer” phrasing.
  • Defenders argue the claim is literally true—no per‑GB fees under fair use—and still far better than hyperscaler egress pricing; they see the accusations of “lying” as exaggeration.
  • A “Kubernetes from 0 €/month” offer is seen as misleading because you must still pay for worker nodes; explanation that the control plane is free doesn’t fully satisfy some readers.
  • Claims of “100% SLA” trigger skepticism and are viewed as a red flag.

Pricing and Competitor Comparisons

  • UpCloud’s VPS pricing is compared unfavorably to Hetzner Cloud (including dedicated vCPU variants) and sometimes to DO; many see UpCloud as noticeably more expensive.
  • There is some confusion between dedicated servers vs dedicated vCPU cloud; commenters clarify that dedicated cloud instances are still VPS but with non-oversubscribed cores.
  • Some highlight UpCloud’s flexible plans (e.g., many cores with low RAM, hourly billing) as a differentiator approaching dedicated‑server value without long contracts.

Features and Completeness of the Platform

  • Critics say UpCloud mostly offers basic IaaS (VMs, storage, load balancers, a couple of managed databases and KV, managed K8s) and lacks higher‑level services such as managed cache, message brokers, and email.
  • For broader European cloud alternatives, people mention Scaleway (more AWS‑like service breadth) and Exoscale, and link to a catalog of “European alternatives.”

GDPR, Cookies, and Compliance Signaling

  • Some commenters mock the article’s GDPR rhetoric, noting that UpCloud serves Google Tag Manager “spyware” and that its cookie banner is allegedly non‑compliant.
  • A side thread debates GDPR in general: some find it hard to implement and largely symbolic; others argue that difficulty is intentional to curb careless data collection and that abuses stem from companies’ “malicious compliance,” not the law itself.

European Cloud Ecosystem and Vendor Lock‑in

  • Several participants stress that true independence also requires moving off Microsoft Windows/365 and US SaaS, not just relocating infrastructure.
  • There is interest in a turnkey stack of self‑hosted FOSS SaaS (Nextcloud, Matrix, Penpot, etc.) on EU clouds, with SSO and flat‑rate pricing; at least one commenter provides concrete spending numbers and expresses willingness to accept some “pain” to avoid US vendors.
  • Others note that a fully “pure” European stack is unrealistic given global hardware/software supply chains; the goal should be practical risk reduction, not perfection.