Structured comparison · May 2026
SME public cloud 2026: AWS vs Azure vs OVHcloud.
Neutral comparison of the 3 public clouds for French SMEs. Sovereignty, pricing, services, support.
Amazon (USA)
AWS (Amazon Web Services)
Tech SME / startup / B2B SaaS needing international scale
Pay-as-you-go · ~50-2,000 €/month for SMEs with 5-50 seats
+ Strengths
- ✓Broadest service catalog (EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, ElastiCache, Bedrock AI, etc.)
- ✓Operational maturity: SLA, monitoring, automation
- ✓Huge community + documentation
- ✓Paris (eu-west-3) + Marseille + Frankfurt + Stockholm regions
- ✓Generous 12-month free tier to get started
- ✓Skills readily available on the market
− Limitations
- −Subject to the US Cloud Act — not recommended for ultra-sensitive data or OIV
- −Complex pricing (egress, traffic, requests) → sometimes unpredictable bills
- −Console UX can be unwelcoming for non-experts
- −Paid support (Business from $100/month min)
Ideal for
Tech SMEs wanting scale, multi-region, advanced managed services (AI, ML, analytics)
Microsoft (USA)
Microsoft Azure
SME running Microsoft 365 / Active Directory / SQL Server
Pay-as-you-go · often included in enterprise M365 contracts
+ Strengths
- ✓Native integration with AD / Entra ID / M365
- ✓Bring Your Own License for Microsoft (Windows Server, SQL) with discounts
- ✓Azure Arc: hybrid resource management (on-prem + cloud)
- ✓France Central region (Paris) + EU Bleu (sovereign via Bleu late 2025)
- ✓Credits included in some enterprise agreements
- ✓Defender for Cloud unifies endpoint + cloud security
− Limitations
- −Subject to the US Cloud Act (except Bleu for sovereign offers)
- −Microsoft license pricing on Azure marked up if not BYOL
- −Documentation sometimes incomplete on recent services
- −Standard support is paid (similar to AWS)
Ideal for
100% Microsoft SMEs seeking ecosystem consistency + unified billing
OVHcloud (France)
OVHcloud
French SME seeking sovereignty + predictable pricing + FR support
Fixed pricing · ~30-1,500 €/month for SMEs with 5-50 seats
+ Strengths
- ✓French sovereignty: no US Cloud Act
- ✓Datacenters in Roubaix, Strasbourg, Gravelines, Beauharnois (FR/EU/CA)
- ✓Simple pricing, no egress fees on most offers
- ✓Competitive on Hosted Private Cloud, VPS, Bare Metal
- ✓Public Cloud catalog (OpenStack + S3 compatible)
- ✓French technical support included
- ✓SecNumCloud certified (Bare Metal Pod offer) — qualified for OIV
− Limitations
- −Managed services catalog less extensive than AWS/Azure (no Bedrock AI, limited ML services)
- −Console + tooling maturity below the hyperscalers
- −The SBG2 2021 incident remains a memorable mark (since then: improved redundancy)
- −Some native third-party services unavailable
Ideal for
French SMEs, OIV, public administrations, sensitive data, needing sovereignty + fixed pricing
Detailed comparison table
| Criterion | AWS | Azure | OVHcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor origin | USA (Amazon) | USA (Microsoft) | France |
| Subject to Cloud Act | Yes | Yes (except Bleu) | No |
| France datacenters | Paris (eu-west-3) | France Central (Paris) | Roubaix, Strasbourg, Gravelines |
| SecNumCloud certification | No | Bleu (in progress) | Yes (Bare Metal Pod) |
| Compute (VM) | EC2 | Virtual Machines | Public Cloud Instances + VPS + Bare Metal |
| S3-like object storage | S3 (the reference) | Blob Storage | S3-compatible Object Storage |
| Managed database | RDS (Postgres/MySQL/etc) | Azure SQL / Postgres flex | Cloud Databases (Postgres/MySQL/MongoDB) |
| Managed Kubernetes | EKS | AKS | OVH Managed Kubernetes |
| AI / ML services | Bedrock, SageMaker, Comprehend | Azure OpenAI, ML Studio, AI Foundry | AI Notebooks / Training (limited) |
| Egress pricing (outbound) | High (~$0.09/GB) | High (~$0.087/GB) | Often free or very low |
| Standard support | Paid (Basic free, Business $100/month min) | Paid (Basic free, Pro $100/month) | Standard included, Premium paid |
| Free tier | Generous 12 months | 12 months + $200 credit | No global free tier |
| Marketplace catalog | Very rich | Rich (M365-integrated) | Modest |
| Skills available in FR | Very strong | Very strong | Strong |
Recommendation by profile
Tech startup / B2B SaaS / international scale
→ AWS
Unbeatable service catalog + operational maturity. Skills readily available.
100% Microsoft 365 + AD SME
→ Azure
Ecosystem consistency, Microsoft BYOL, unified Entra/Defender integration.
OIV / public administration / sensitive data / sovereignty
→ OVHcloud (Bare Metal Pod SecNumCloud)
No Cloud Act, SecNumCloud certification, France datacenters, FR support included.
Cloud migration or new project?
Existing-environment audit + landing zone + sizing + phased migration + team training. On AWS, Azure or OVHcloud.