OVHcloud

History and growth

OVH was founded in November 1999 by Octave Klaba, with the help of three family members (Henry, Haline, and Miroslaw).

In August 2023, it was announced OVHcloud was in exclusive negotiations for the acquisition of the Cologne-headquartered edge computing software company, gridscale GmbH.

According to W3Techs, OVH is used by 3.1% of all websites.

Funding

In October 2016, OVH raised $250 million in order to raise further international expansion. This funding round valued OVH at over US$1 billion. In the fiscal year of 2016, OVH reportedly had around $343 million in revenue. In 2018 OVH announced its five-year plans to triple investment starting in 2021. Which represent between 4.6 and $8.1 billion U.S. dollars (4 to 7 billion euros).

In October 2021, OVHcloud filed its IPO and is listed on the Euronext Paris, the Paris Stock Exchange as OVH. In December 2021, OVHcloud became part of the Paris SBF120 index.

Operations

As of 2021, OVH had 30 data centers in 19 countries hosting 300,000 servers. The company offers localized services such as customer service offices in many European countries, as well as in North America, Africa, and Singapore. , OVH is considered one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world, with over a million customers and one of the largest OpenStack deployments in the world, and a network capacity totaling over 20 Tbit/s

As of 2017, OVH was known for its offering of email hosting service, considered one of the largest in the world, in addition to its general Internet hosting services.

OVH uses in-house design and manufacturing, including custom-made servers (based on standard components) and a modular shipping container architecture. In 2019, the Canadian data center (Beauharnois, Quebec) was considered a leading example of the OVH model.

In March 2025, OVHcloud US announced that it has expanded its network by introducing a Local Zone in Seattle, enhancing data processing speeds and connectivity for Pacific Northwest businesses. This addition aims to lower latency and support various cloud applications in the region.

Partnerships

As of 2016, OVH was one of the sponsors for Let's Encrypt, a free TLS encryption service, and OVH's hardware supplier is Super Micro Computer Inc.

Certificates

In March 2025, OVHcloud obtained the SecNumCloud 3.2 qualification for its highly secure cloud platform, Bare Metal Pod. Awarded by the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), this certification acknowledges the platform’s adherence to stringent security standards. The qualification further supports OVHcloud’s efforts in providing secure cloud solutions for public and private sector organizations, addressing strategic autonomy requirements and ensuring compliance for sensitive operations.

Incidents

In March 2021, OVH suffered a large fire at its datacenter in Strasbourg, France. SBG2 had been built in 2016 with a capacity of 30,000 physical servers. SBG2 was declared a total loss, with early reports indicating damage to SBG1, and services across all four Strasbourg locations experiencing disruptions. The company's chairman, Octave Klaba, took to Twitter to confirm that all its staff were safe. All customer data and backups stored in SBG2 were lost. SBG1 was damaged partially while SBG4 remained intact, and SBG3 was intact but without power, though the servers at the latter sites were taken offline temporarily. In September 2021, the company filed a report with the Autorité des marchés financiers documenting the estimated damage at about €105 million.{{cite web |access-date= 12 October 2021

Controversies

WikiLeaks

In December 2010, French Gizmodo edition revealed that WikiLeaks selected OVH as its new hosting provider, following Amazon's refusal to host it. On December 3, the growing controversy prompted Eric Besson, France's Industry Minister, to inquire about legal ways to prohibit this hosting in France. The attempt failed. On December 6, 2010, a judge ruled that there was no need for OVH to cease hosting WikiLeaks. The case was rejected on the grounds that such a case required an adversarial hearing.

References

References

1. "OVH reorganises its governance to support new acceleration phase".
2. Clabaugh, Jeff. (2016-10-06). "French firm to open 1st US data center in Fauquier Co.".
3. (2018-10-18). "France's OVH to triple spending to take on Google, Amazon in cloud computing". [[Reuters]].
4. (10 October 2019). "For its 20th anniversary, OVH takes off and becomes OVHcloud".
5. (2023-08-08). "OVHcloud on the edge of glory in new market with Germany acquisition".
6. "Usage statistics of OVH as data center provider".
7. "OVH Partners with KKR and TowerBrook for Further Global Expansion".
8. (2018-10-18). "France's OVH to triple spending to take on Google, Amazon in cloud...". [[Reuters]].
9. (15 October 2021). "Shares in French tech champion OVHcloud gain 6% in Paris debut". Reuters.
10. (10 December 2021). "OVHcloud Joins SBF 120 Index Following Euronext Paris Review | MarketScreener".
11. "About - OVH Canada". OVH.
12. "Datacenters: Security and infrastructure | OVHcloud".
13. (2019-08-26). "Best dedicated server hosting providers of 2019".
14. Max Smolaks. (2019-04-29). "OVH pulls gloves off bare metal fighters as it eyes up US cloud vendors".
15. David Legrand. (2017-03-27). "OVH lance une offre E-mail Pro basée sur Microsoft Exchange... mais sans ActiveSync".
16. (2020). "Press release for market report".
17. (2019-03-05). "Beauharnois data centre a model of OVH DIY scale".
18. "OVHcloud US Expands Cloud Network with New Seattle Local Zone".
19. (2025-03-07). "OVHcloud US Expands Cloud Network with New Local Zone in Seattle".
20. Lomas, Natasha. (2016-04-12). "Let's Encrypt free HTTPS certification push exits beta".
21. (December 22, 2015). "OVH Commits to Let's Encrypt to Provide Free SSL Certificates". OVH.COM.
22. Mawad, Marie. (2018-10-18). "OVH Keeps Super Micro as Supplier, Vets Hardware In-House". [[Bloomberg News.
23. (2025-03-31). "OVHcloud announces the SecNumCloud qualification of its Bare Metal Pod cloud platform, combining strategic autonomy and enhanced security".
24. (2025-03-31). "OVH (EPA:OVH) {{!}} OVHcloud Secures Strategic Autonomy with SecNumCloud Qualification".
25. (2025-04-01). "OVHcloud Earns SecNumCloud Certification for its Bare Metal Pod Cloud Platform".
26. (2021-03-10). "Blaze destroys servers at Europe's largest cloud services firm".
27. "OVH Strasbourg Campus Data Center".
28. (2021-03-10). "OVH data centre destroyed by fire in Strasbourg – all services unavailable".
29. (22 March 2023). "OVHcloud ordered to pay €250k to two customers who lost data in Strasbourg data center fire". Datacentre Dynamics.
30. (2021-03-10). "CEO Says Fire Has Destroyed OVH's Strasbourg Data Center (SBG2)".
31. (2021-03-11). "OVH Data Center in France Destroyed by Fire, All Staff Safe".
32. (17 September 2021). "DOCUMENT D'ENREGISTREMENT". OVHCloud Group.
33. Greenberg, Andy. (September 13, 2012). "This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Hacktivists, and Cypherpunks Are Freeing the World's Information". Random House.
34. (2010-12-03). "France seeks to bar hosting WikiLeaks website". [[Reuters]].
35. Greenberg, Andy. (2010-12-03). "Despite Attacks, WikiLeaks' Swedish Host Won't Budge".
36. (2010-12-06). "French web host need not shut down WikiLeaks site: judge".
37. (6 December 2010). "Following the wikileaks case". OVH.