EU Eyes Ditching Microsoft Azure for France's OVHcloud

Digital sovereignty & US dependence

• Many argue it’s irresponsible for the EU to rely on US hyperscalers for “sovereign‑critical” systems, especially given diverging views on privacy and data protection.
• Concerns center on US extraterritorial laws (e.g., CLOUD Act) and the possibility of political interference or sudden shutdowns of EU services.
• Several commenters see this as part of a broader loss of trust in the US, linking it to recent geopolitical tensions and behavior of the current US administration.
• Others frame it as normal statecraft: the US wouldn’t host federal infrastructure on Alibaba; the EU seeking independence is similar.

Azure vs. OVHcloud: capabilities and risks

• Some point out Azure’s EU regions and “EU Data Boundary,” but note key services (e.g., identity) remain globally shared and still under US jurisdiction.
• OVHcloud is widely seen as cheaper but less mature than AWS/Azure/GCP in networking, managed services, and operational discipline.
• The high‑profile OVH data‑center fire and perceived corner‑cutting on infrastructure are cited as red flags; others counter that US clouds have had serious outages too and that OVH has improved (multi‑AZ, better tooling).

Experiences with OVH and other European providers

• Mixed reports: some describe years of excellent uptime, simple billing, and good value; others report frequent incidents, account verification hassles, and opaque support.
• Fraud‑prevention limits (refusing large servers or GPU instances to new accounts) are common across providers and discussed as standard risk management.
• Hetzner is frequently mentioned as an alternative EU provider, often preferred for reliability, though with a smaller product surface than OVH.

Cloud lock‑in, labor dynamics, and architecture

• Several see cloud adoption as a way for management to reduce dependence on in‑house sysadmins by standardizing on widely known cloud skills.
• Others argue cloud doesn’t remove the need for ops expertise; it just shifts it to “DevOps/SRE” roles.
• Some advocate multi‑cloud or hybrid/on‑prem setups to avoid both US and single‑vendor dependence; “other people’s computers” are not true sovereignty.

Industrial policy and long‑term strategy

• Commenters link this move to broader EU efforts (e.g., GAIA‑X, processor initiatives) and argue that only real usage and investment will mature local players.
• Skeptics predict that, despite current sovereignty rhetoric, workloads may drift back to AWS/Azure/Google over time due to features, stability, and ecosystem.