Scality & OVHcloud launch sovereign storage platform

Scality and OVHcloud have launched a joint cloud storage platform for European customers, aimed at organisations that want sovereign control over sensitive data.

The platform is designed for deployment on dedicated sovereign cloud infrastructure and on customers' own sites. It offers storage and backup options intended to support artificial intelligence workloads and regulatory requirements.

The launch expands an existing technology partnership between the French cloud provider and the storage software supplier, as European businesses and public sector bodies face growing pressure to keep critical data within local jurisdictions.

That pressure is particularly acute in sectors such as healthcare, finance, defence and public services, where data-handling rules and resilience requirements have become more demanding. The backdrop includes frameworks such as GDPR, DORA and NIS2.

Sovereign focus

The platform combines Scality's object storage software with OVHcloud's On-Prem Cloud Platform, or OPCP. Customers can run storage on their own infrastructure while using cloud-style orchestration, deployment automation and a managed services catalogue.

Scality's RING and ARTESCA products provide S3-compatible object storage on customer premises. OVHcloud adds the surrounding infrastructure management, giving users an option that does not rely on foreign public cloud providers.

The partnership also includes a dedicated storage offer on OVHcloud bare metal infrastructure through its HGR-STOR range. This is intended to provide an off-site backup option with private S3 compatibility hosted directly by OVHcloud.

The setup supports replication across multiple availability zones and can form part of a business continuity plan. In the event of a disaster or outage at a primary site, customers can fail over to OVHcloud infrastructure under controlled conditions.

OVHcloud said the dedicated server model means there is no resource sharing with other customers. It said this helps provide isolation and more predictable service levels for clients handling sensitive data.

AI workloads

The launch also reflects a broader shift in how companies are building infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Rather than moving large data sets to public cloud environments, many organisations are trying to process data closer to where it is created or stored, especially when it includes confidential records or operational telemetry.

The new platform is intended for that model. The storage layer is described as compatible with GPU-direct environments and set up for AI data pipelines, while the on-premises platform is designed to let users train models, run machine learning operations pipelines and deploy AI applications within their own environments.

For companies in regulated industries, the pitch is that they can keep data local while still building AI systems that require large-scale storage and low-latency access. The partners also said the platform is built to meet cyber-resilience needs through backup and integration with established data protection tools.

According to the companies, the off-site storage offering supports tools including Veeam and Commvault. That places the new service in the backup, recovery and resilience market, as well as primary storage for AI and data-intensive workloads.

European backdrop

The announcement comes as digital sovereignty has become a more prominent theme in Europe's technology market. Concerns over foreign jurisdiction, operational dependence on large US cloud groups, and the handling of sensitive public and commercial data have pushed buyers to look for alternatives that keep infrastructure and control closer to home.

OVHcloud has long positioned itself as a European cloud provider with its own infrastructure footprint and direct control over much of its technology stack. It operates more than 500,000 servers across 46 data centres on four continents and serves 1.6 million customers in more than 140 countries.

Scality focuses on large-scale storage software for AI, cyber resilience and long-term data retention. Its products are used in environments that need multi-petabyte to exabyte-scale storage, including enterprises and government organisations.

The companies are targeting customers that want cloud-like operating models without placing sensitive workloads on shared public cloud platforms. Their joint offer centres on dedicated infrastructure, local deployment and storage designed to scale for large data volumes.

Emilio Roman, Chief Revenue Officer at Scality, said: "OVHcloud and Scality share the same conviction: sovereignty is not a barrier to innovation - it is the prerequisite. By combining our high-performance object storage with the OPCP platform, we empower companies to scale their AI projects without ever sacrificing control over their data."

Sylvie Houliere Mayca said OVHcloud sees its on-premises platform as central to the alliance. "The OVHcloud OPCP platform was designed so that software vendors and their customers can benefit from the power of the cloud wherever they need it: on their own premises. Scality is the natural and recognised partner for high-performance storage solutions for the most critical data. Together, OVHcloud and Scality provide a sovereign infrastructure backed by more than 25 years of OVHcloud expertise and ready for AI," said Mayca.