AWS Alternative OVH: Save 63% on Cloud Costs
Executive Summary
A German e-commerce client was paying €6,250/month for AWS. After a 3-month migration to OVH: €2,299/month – a 63% cost reduction.
Challenge: Kubernetes cluster (8 nodes), 2.5 TB PostgreSQL database, strict GDPR requirements, maximum downtime budget: 4 hours.
Solution: Complete migration to OVH Cloud with pre-sync strategy, Terraform-based infrastructure-as-code, and Vietnamese DevOps teams for 24/7 support.
The Starting Point: AWS Bills Out of Control
"Our AWS bill has grown from €2,800 to €6,250/month in 18 months. We need an alternative – but not a DIY solution. We want managed services, GDPR compliance, and professional support."
This is how the conversation started with one of our e-commerce clients in late 2025. The company operates a high-traffic online platform with ~500,000 monthly users and had classic symptoms of the cloud cost trap:
- Vendor Lock-in: Deep integration with AWS services (RDS, EKS, S3, CloudFront)
- Opaque Costs: Over 40 different line items on the bill
- Data Transfer Fees: €800/month for egress traffic alone
- Reserved Instances: No flexibility with declining requirements
The budget target was clear: Maximum €3,333/month (€40,000 annual budget) for equivalent or better infrastructure.
Technical Requirements
Compute & Orchestration
- Managed Kubernetes (8 worker nodes, 4 vCPU + 16 GB RAM per node)
- Auto-scaling (min 6, max 12 nodes)
- Load Balancer with SSL termination
Database & Storage
- PostgreSQL 15 cluster (2.5 TB, master + 2 replicas)
- Object Storage (8 TB, S3-compatible)
- Daily backups with 30-day retention
Network & CDN
- CDN with 12 TB traffic/month
- DDoS protection & web application firewall
- Private network (VPN between clusters)
Compliance & Support
- Data center in Germany/EU (GDPR)
- ISO 27001, SOC 2 certification
- 24/7 support (< 1h response time for critical)
Cost Comparison: 8 Providers Tested
We obtained quotes from all relevant European cloud providers as well as the hyperscalers. Here's the complete cost comparison (monthly, excluding setup fees):
| Provider | Monthly Cost | vs. AWS | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS (current) | €6,250 | — | Over Budget |
| Microsoft Azure | €5,890 | -6% | Over Budget |
| Google Cloud Platform | €5,420 | -13% | Over Budget |
| IBM Cloud | €4,680 | -25% | Over Budget |
| Telekom Open Telekom Cloud | €3,580 | -43% | Close to Budget |
| StackIT (Schwarz Group) | €3,450 | -45% | Within Budget |
| IONOS Cloud | €2,850 | -54% | Under Budget |
| OVH Cloud ⭐ (Selected) | €2,299 | -63% | Top Choice |
| Hetzner Cloud | €1,420 | -77% | Limited |
💡 Why Not the Cheapest Provider?
After thorough analysis together with the customer, we decided against Hetzner – despite the attractive pricing. The reasons were multifaceted:
- •No managed Kubernetes: Full responsibility for cluster management, updates, and monitoring
- •Less mature ecosystem: Limited Terraform integration, missing managed services
- •Support quality: No 24/7 hotline, primarily ticket-based support
Bottom line: Sometimes it's not the lowest price that wins, but the best price-to-service ratio. With OVH, we get enterprise features at mid-market prices – without compromising on scalability and support.
Why OVH? The Established Cloud Ecosystem
OVH is one of Europe's most established cloud providers with a mature ecosystem that rivals the hyperscalers in many areas – at a fraction of the cost.
Comprehensive Tool Ecosystem
- Official Terraform Provider – Infrastructure as Code out-of-the-box
- Kubernetes Engine (kube) – Fully managed K8s, compatible with kubectl/Helm
- S3-compatible Object Storage – Drop-in replacement for AWS S3 (MinIO-based)
- Managed Databases – PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
Global Reach
- 32 Data Centers Worldwide (8 in Europe, including Frankfurt, Gravelines, Strasbourg)
- CDN with 19 PoPs – Europe, North America, Asia
- 400 Gbit/s Backbone – Own fiber network between data centers
- 1.6M+ Customers, including Atos, OUI.sncf, Le Monde
24/7 Support with Real Engineers: OVH offers phone support in German, English, and French. Our Vietnamese DevOps engineers also enable continuous 24/7 coverage across three time zones (2 engineers in Vietnam for 16h + 1 engineer in Germany for 8h).
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The Migration Strategy: 3 Months from Plan to Go-Live
The biggest challenge: Migrating a 2.5 TB PostgreSQL database with a maximum of 4 hours allowed downtime. Our solution: Database Pre-Sync.
Planning & Infrastructure Design
- →Develop Terraform modules for OVH
- →Design network architecture
- →Adapt CI/CD pipeline
- →Define rollback strategy
Test Environment Deployment
- →Set up Kubernetes cluster
- →Test database replication
- →Conduct load tests
- →Set up monitoring (New Relic)
Staging, Production & Handover
- →Week 8: Staging environment live
- →Week 9: Production cutover (3.5h downtime)
- →Weeks 10-11: Testing & team training
- →Documentation & knowledge transfer
The Key to Success: Database Pre-Sync
The 2.5 TB database would have required ~24 hours for normal transfer. Our solution:
- Day -7: Initial database dump from AWS RDS to OVH PostgreSQL (via private VPN)
- Day -7 to -1: Continuous delta synchronization via pg_logical replication
- Cutover day: Only 12 GB delta data = 3.5h downtime instead of 24h
Result: Downtime of 3.5 hours – well below the 4-hour budget.
Results After 6 Months
Financial Success
- ✓€3,951/month savings (€6,250 → €2,299)
- ✓€47,412/year total savings
- ✓ROI after 2 months (migration costs amortized)
- ✓Predictable costs – no more surprise bills
Technical Performance
- ✓99.97% uptime (target: 99.95%)
- ✓-18% latency through CDN optimization
- ✓Zero data loss during migration
- ✓Auto-scaling works reliably
Lessons Learned: 5 Insights for Your Cloud Migration
1. Hyperscaler lock-in is avoidable
Many companies believe AWS/Azure-specific services are irreplaceable. In 90% of cases, there are open-source alternatives (Kubernetes instead of EKS, MinIO instead of S3, PostgreSQL instead of RDS). The key: design portable architectures from the start.
2. GDPR compliance reduces costs
European data centers aren't more expensive – quite the opposite. Without transatlantic data transfer fees and CLOUD Act risks, you save not only money but also legal complexity.
3. Vietnamese DevOps teams as game changer
With our setup (2 engineers in Vietnam + 1 engineer in Germany), we achieve true 24/7 coverage. Cost: ~€17,000/month (2 × €4,000 Vietnam + 1 × €9,000 Germany). A comparable German 3-person team would cost €27,000/month – a 37% cost savings. The time zone distribution (UTC+7 and UTC+1) ensures seamless handovers.
4. Pre-sync is mandatory for large databases
Without database pre-sync, we would have had 24+ hours of downtime. The investment in replication setup (2 days development time) paid off 10-fold. Rule: always plan for pre-sync with >500 GB data.
5. Terraform + GitOps = reproducibility
The entire infrastructure is in Git (Infrastructure as Code). Result: spin up staging environment in 15 minutes, complete disaster recovery in under 2 hours. Click-ops in cloud consoles is the most expensive technical debt.
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