The IT Nerd

 OVHcloud today announces the finalists of its Fast Forward AI Accelerator. To further support its ecosystem, OVHcloud recently launched its first accelerator program solely dedicated to AI startups. With the new Fast Forward AI Accelerator, OVHcloud is offering AI Startups the resources they need to accelerate their growth and increase their value, leveraging new AMD led workshops providing participating startups unique value.

OVHcloud is offering select AI startups throughout the world a 3-month program comprised of free cloud credits that complement the regular Startup Program Cloud credits, AI technology deep-dives, various workshops including AMD led workshops, as well as mentoring and engagements with VCs and corporates from OVHcloud’s unique data sovereign ecosystem.

Over a dozen finalists based in Europe, Canada and India are already benefiting from OVHcloud’s unique differentiators through a trusted cloud that is sustainable by design with the best performance/price ratio. OVHcloud is pleased to unveil the focus areas and names of the selected finalists for this first AI Accelerator cohort:

• AI research and associated tools are represented by Applied Brain Research Inc. that delivers state-of-the-art AI chip solutions, Hopsworks AB who develops an AI lakehouse platform designed for data and AI and Multiverse Computing that compresses LLMs such as Llama2 through its CompactifAI tool,
• In the burgeoning field of GenAI, Hello Ebbot AB provides a GenAI automation platform for customer service while Jumbo Mana creates conversational avatars for reliable and engaging services,
• In healthcare, myUpchar provides access to a host of medical information through its platform while PraxySante’s AI suite helps to free up time and improve patient monitoring,
• SaaS providers are well represented with Beink Dream that offers a visual collaboration SaaS platform, Catch GmbH that streamlines hiring and automates some tasks though AI,Lector.ai GmbH is an intelligent document processing platform, Uncia is a platform that aids IT departments create, organize and maintain documentation and YouScan provides a social media listening and analytics platform. Lastly, Webcapsule offers a platform that simplifies infrastructure management, secure deployments and accelerates cloud transitions,

The selected finalists will benefit from the opportunity to accelerate their use of OVHcloud’s GPUs and complete set of AI Solutions that include the ability to prepare data, train and deploy AI models. The startups’ go-to-market will also benefit from OVHcloud’s ecosystem thanks to business access and funding opportunities.

AMD workshops

Amongst the many benefits, startup participants of this first cohort will take advantage of workshops hosted by AMD. Through these AMD delivered sessions, participants will noticeably get up to speed on how MLOps streamlines AI workflows, ensuring scalable and efficient deployments. Focusing on best practices, the workshop will help in managing machine learning pipelines and showcasing how AMD’s hardware and software, including advanced Instinct™ GPUs and ROCm open software, can optimize AI solutions

In a second workshop, AI strategies & Best Practices for Startups, AMD will help startups define AI strategies, implement best practices and leverage AI for growth and competitive advantage.

AI Action Summit 2025

OVHcloud participated in the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, France, on February 10-11th, 2025. During this event, the Group hosted various live AI and Data talks, focusing on AI solutions, accelerators, and the startup ecosystem to discuss the future of AI. Ten AI startups presented their groundbreaking solutions at Station F, including Jumbo Mana’s demo of its Agentic AI for passenger flow management.

• Learn more about OVHcloud Startup Program

Console Connect, PCCW Global’s on-demand platform and automated network for intelligent data movement, is now available from the newest Toronto data centre ofOVHcloud, a global cloud player and the European Cloud leader, broadening secure cloud access for businesses in Canada.

Located in one of North America’s most dynamic innovation clusters, the expansion enables more businesses to rapidly move data between OVHcloud, enterprise locations, devices and other clouds using a trusted solution on a single on-demand platform, accelerating hybrid and multi-cloud adoption in Canada.

Businesses prioritizing uninterrupted access and data protection can now quickly configure highly available redundancy through OVHcloud Connect (OCC) Provider via Console Connect, backed by the extended PCCW Global private network.

For highly critical workloads requiring a private network SLA, Console Connect and OVHcloud can establish a highly available private extended network to access critical workloads hosted in two OVHcloud data centers in Canada.

Console Connect became a new global OVHcloud Connect partner last year. Since then, it has added on-ramps to OVHcloud in Montreal. By expanding its presence to Toronto, Console Connect allows enterprises to interconnect OVHcloud’s data centres in the two Canadian cities within minutes via its private automated backbone.

Whether seeking redundancy, security or speed, the Console Connect platform is a strong fit for companies looking for a more efficient, secure and cost-effective way to turn up a private connection between any cloud provider to OVHcloud, migrate their data securely and then tear the connection down when complete.

OVHcloud, a global cloud player, today hosts its inaugural Canada’s Innovation Future event alongside the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo. The event brings together thought-leaders, academics, and industry experts from Ontario’s vibrant tech sector to address the intersection of innovation and regulation, focusing on fostering open, trusted and sustainable technologies.

As Canada’s digital landscape reaches a pivotal moment, discussions will center on creating frameworks that balance technological growth with responsible governance, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence (AI). As businesses increasingly adopt AI solutions, there is a growing emphasis on establishing regulatory frameworks that ensure ethical practices and protect data sovereignty. Striking a balance between fostering a competitive tech landscape and addressing privacy and security concerns, in this evolving regulatory environment presents both challenges and opportunities for organizations in the Waterloo-Toronto corridor.

During the event, OVHcloud is making two major announcements demonstrating its commitment to driving innovation, sustainability and data sovereignty within Canada’s technology landscape. In collaboration with market research firm, Léger, OVHcloud released new research on the evolving technology landscape in the Waterloo-Toronto corridor. 

Addressing critical topics such as data sovereignty, AI adoption, and sustainability, this research provides key insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by tech organizations in their pursuit of technological freedom and efficiency.  Among the report’s key findings, respondents highlighted that:

• Data protection is a top priority, with almost nine in ten respondents (88%) saying it is important for their organization to store data locally. 
• Sustainability is a key focus for many organizations, with 81% saying environmental sustainability is important in their organization’s technology and data management strategies. However, 36% of respondents believe they receive clear information about their providers’ carbon emissions. 
• Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents feel constrained to use the services of U.S. cloud giants, citing limited flexibility in switching vendors. 
• Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents believe their organization are prepared to manage the privacy and security risks posed by the growing use of AI and machine learning in data related activities.
• More than two-thirds (68%) believe current regulations in Canada sufficiently support digital innovation while protecting privacy and security, while 21% believe that the Canadian regulations are too restrictive or not strong enough.

The findings present a pivotal opportunity to reframe the conversation around data governance, sustainability, and innovation within the Waterloo-Toronto corridor. OVHcloud’s strong values and differentiators in Canada significantly enhance the region’s ability to tackle these challenges while promoting data sovereignty and sustainable innovation. Complying with local regulations and remaining fully immune to extraterritorial legislation, OVHcloud demonstrates a strong commitment to data protection through its multi-site footprint in Canada.

Its innovative approach is reflected in industry-leading energy efficiency, including water-cooled data centers, as well as a comprehensive carbon calculator that addresses all three scopes of emissions, including manufacturing and lifecycle impacts. OVHcloud’s commitment to energy efficiency also addresses the growing demand for sustainable technology solutions, enabling organizations to reduce their carbon footprint while managing costs. This combination of affordability and environmental responsibility positions OVHcloud as a trusted partner for Canadian businesses.

In a landscape where reliance on U.S. providers can create constraints, OVHcloud champions an open cloud model free from vendor lock-in, offering fully interoperable and reversible solutions that empower organizations to maintain complete control over their infrastructure and data journey.

In addition to the research, OVHcloud also announced a new partnership between OVHcloud and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, highlighting the need for sustained discussions on technology and governance to shape Canada’s innovation future. The partnership further demonstrates the company’s dedication and commitment to contributing to the tech ecosystem of the region. 

Through this partnership, OVHcloud will support the BSIA’s technology governance internship program, which places graduate students in corporate, government and not-for-profit organizations. This initiative allows students to gain hands-on experience in governance, policy, and emerging technologies while providing a platform for organizations like OVHcloud to benefit from fresh perspectives on critical issues such as data protection and sovereignty.

This partnership as an important step in deepening OVHcloud’s engagement with the academic and tech communities in North America, helping to shape the future of technology governance and further promoting sovereignty and sustainability for a better digital future.

Firmly established in Canada in 2011, OVHcloud has expanded its presence with the opening of a new data center in Cambridge (ON) in March 2024 Located in one of North America’s most dynamic innovation clusters, this new data centre delivers trusted cloud solutions that cater to Canadian companies’ needs for enhanced performance, resilience and data governance. 

Download the OVHcloud/Léger report here.

OVHcloud, a global cloud player with a strong presence in Canada, is deploying Hosted Private Cloud to its growing portfolio of cloud solutions available in its new data centre, located in the Toronto area. This added solution addresses the demanding needs of Canadian organizations aiming to enhance their infrastructure in a trusted cloud environment.

Leveraging VMware by Broadcom, the Private Cloud solution combines top-tier virtualization with OVHcloud’s dedicated infrastructure. As a Pinnacle tier partner in the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program within Canada, OVHcloud will help organizations modernize infrastructure with optimal TCO while ensuring enterprise-grade resiliency and security. Hosted Private Cloud supports data centre migration, application modernization, backup, and disaster recovery in a seamless package. Features include host and storage packages, network security with VMware NSX, unlimited traffic on private and public connectivity, data encryption, and backup and disaster recovery functionalities via Veeam and Zerto, offering companies an enhanced level of resilience within a 100% private environment.

OVHcloud customers can now achieve superior redundancy for their workloads by utilizing two Canadian data centres, in Beauharnois (Quebec) and Cambridge (Ontario). Managed Veeam Backup solution automates backups, off-site replications and ensures easy recovery for VMs, while Zerto facilitates robust replication strategies across both sites, providing a resilient disaster recovery solution with minimal downtime and enhanced data protection. This dual-site capability highlights OVHcloud’s dedication to delivering reliable, high-performance cloud solutions tailored to Canadian organizations. Additionally, OVHcloud’s ability to deploy and control its own fibre optic allows Hosted Private Cloud infrastructure in both Canadian data centres to interconnect via the vRack private network at no additional cost with unlimited traffic, high availability and performance.

Key Features of OVHcloud’s Hosted Private Cloud Solution:

• Dedicated Infrastructure in OVHcloud data centres
• Starter Packs including physical Hosts and Datastores
• Additional Hosts and Datastores for growth and scaling
• Managed VMware vSphere 8
• VMware NSX for advanced network and security features (Latest version NSX-T)
• VMware Aria Operations
• Backup and Disaster Recovery: Veeam and Zerto
• Images and Licenses including Microsoft Licences
• Enterprise Support level
• Private connectivity with full OVHcloud portfolio

Hosted Private Cloud comes in addition of a strong portfolio of cloud solutions already available in Cambridge and Beauharnois data centres, including high-grade dedicated servers, object storage, network and connectivity options, and OVHcloud Connect for secure hybrid interconnections with Console Connect and RISQ.

Hosted Private Cloud from eco-friendly data centres

The new Cambridge data centre, spanning 1,000 m² with a capacity of 10,000 servers and 2MW of power, showcases OVHcloud’s operational excellence and energy efficiency through its integrated industrial model, the use of patented watercooling technology and Ontario’s low-carbon energy mix. Customers can also enable a dedicated tool to measure the carbon footprint of their cloud infrastructure. With the carbon calculator, OVHcloud offers a rare opportunity in the industry to analyze the entire lifecycle of a cloud infrastructure, from manufacturing to operation (scope 1-2-3).

Sustainable and secure, this new location offers a compliant environment meeting the stringent requirements of highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, and the public sector. OVHcloud’s solutions are backed by top industry certifications (ISO 27001-017-018, SOC 2 Type 2, CSA Star) and are immune to extraterritorial legislation such as the US Cloud Act.

For more information on Hosted Private Cloud: https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-ca/hosted-private-cloud/

OVHcloud, a global player and the European cloud leader, has taken the stage at Adopt AI, France’s new AI-focused event, to renew its commitment to democratize AI within organizations, an effort aligned with its core values for an open, transparent and trusted Cloud. In a booming AI market, OVHcloud aims to offer businesses the optimal capacity for their every AI needs through a wide range of solutions positioned at every price point. The Group’s unique value proposition aims to bring simplicity to every level of the AI pipeline while addressing the growing concerns for security, data privacy and costs that could further delay AI adoption according to recent studies. 

To propel AI into new territories, OVHcloud now offers a broad portfolio of NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs and the latest open-source LLMs (like Mixtral 8x22B or Llama 3) available on the shelf with unmatched simplicity in a private environment. The Group relentlessly executes on its strategy focusing on the four key items that organizations need to be successful with AI: powerful yet efficient compute resources, streamlined datasets, software tooling and cutting-edge skillsets. 

Offering NVIDIA accelerated computing for every AI workload

Strategically designed to meet the needs of AI engineers today and tomorrow, OVHcloud solutions turbocharge projects from the creation of AI models to inferencing the very latest Large Language Models. As such, the Group now offers a broad portfolio of state-of-the-art NVIDIA GPUs in its Public Cloud universe, available on demand in ecofriendly datacenters, including the NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU, NVIDIA L4 Tensor Core GPU and NVIDIA L40S GPU. Regardless of whether they need to provision and manage GPU instances themselves or leverage them within OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes Services, MLOps Engineers can benefit from the full range of OVHcloud PaaS offerings, including Managed Databases (such as Vector DB like pgvector or Qdrant), Kafka, as well as high-performance Object Storage.

Further delivering on its ambitious AI roadmap, OVHcloud has introduced NVIDIA L40S GPUs on its Public Cloud in addition to the NVIDIA H100 and L4 GPUs which are already available. NVIDIA L40S GPUs combine powerful AI compute with best-in-class graphics and media acceleration to power a wide range of workloads from LLM inference and training to 3D graphics, rendering and video.

Dedicated Bare Metal servers now with NVIDIA L40S GPUs

Addressing the need for powerful dedicated AI servers, OVHcloud has also introduced new Bare Metal dedicated servers powered by NVIDIA L40S GPUs. Sitting in the High Grade range, the new HGR-AI-2 server targets use cases such as deep learning, machine learning and high performance computing. The range is equipped with AMD EPYC 9354 in a dual processor configuration, thus featuring 64 cores and 128 threads with 384 GB of DDR5 memory (up to 2.3 TB). To tackle serious AI workloads, new HGR-AI-2 features 2x NVIDIA L40S 48 GB GPUs with the ability to configure up to 4x NVIDIA L40S 48 GB GPUs per server.

Easy to use tools to gets hands on with AI workloads

To further simplify AI and democratize the way businesses use AI, OVHcloud AI solutions sit at every step of the AI value chain from ideation to production. The easy-to-use, AI Notebooks, AI Training and AI Deploy services act as a complete set of serverless tools designed to experiment with data, train models and put them into production. The high-level software solutions leverage industry standard technologies and are designed to assist data scientists and machine learning engineers without the need to manage complex infrastructure scaling, and with minute-by-minute billing.

New open-source Llama and Mistral models available through AI Endpoints

OVHcloud AI Endpoints is another serverless solution that enables access to a diverse set of AI models through API endpoints thus requiring little to no knowledge on the user side. Before placing their API calls, developers can benefit from a playground to test their Endpoints. Just like critically acclaimed OVHcloud AI Notebooks, AI Training and AI Deploy, AI Endpoints leverages the Group’s infrastructure, fully respecting data privacy (in/out). The Group has added highly sought-after open-source LLMs like Mixtral 8x22b and Llama 3 that can be deployed through the OVHcloud AI Endpoints service.

Pricing and availability

New NVIDIA GPUs options including NVIDIA H100, L4 and L40S are available now in the Public Cloud universe to execute AI driven projects.

New HGR-AI-2 servers with the NVIDIA L40S GPU are available now in France and Canada, starting at 2969,99 euros/month.

New models including Mixtral 8x22b and Llama 3 are available now through OVHcloud AI Endpoints.

Resources

• Learn more about OVHcloud GPU portfolio

OVHcloud today announces at France Quantum 2024 updates to its Quantum Notebooks portfolio. 

To further support the rapid growth and development of quantum computing, OVHcloud adds a new Quantum Notebook supporting the IBM-developed open-source QiskitTM SDK. This new addition completes OVHcloud already impressive set of Quantum Notebooks available in the Cloud, including Alice & Bob, C12, Eviden, Pasqal and Quandela. OVHcloud is one of IBM’s recommended notebook environment solution for users of the IBM Quantum Lab, which was sunset on 15 May, 2024.

Leveraging state of the art technologies, OVHcloud offers developers and students alike the opportunity to develop today, the algorithms of tomorrow. With the notebooks designed to program a wide variety of Quantum computer architectures, OVHcloud continues to support the development of a truly vibrant Quantum ecosystem. The addition of Qiskit, the most-used Quantum development framework in the world, allows for programmers to create software using the Python development language to program Quantum computers, including algorithms, circuits and pulses.

The Quantum Notebook with Qiskit is available now from the OVHcloud Public Cloud universe. Registered startups within the OVHcloud Startup Program can access the Qiskit SDK, through the Quantum Notebook now. Eligible students can get free access to the whole range of OVHcloud Quantum Notebooks, including Qiskit.

Resources

• Learn more about OVHcloud Quantum Notebooks

 OVHcloud, the European Cloud leader, today announces new dedicated High Grade Bare Metal servers featuring top-of-the-line Intel Xeon Gold 5^th Generation processors. Further democratizing innovation, new Bare Metal servers are aimed at demanding, mission critical and sensitive workloads, such as confidential computing, HPC and virtualization. The new OVHcloud High Grade Bare Metal line benefits from Intel TDX technology as well as new built-in accelerators for added performance, all the while answering the many challenges of hyperconverged and storage infrastructures.

At the heart of the new OVHcloud HCI, SDS and STOR lines lies Intel Emerald Rapids microarchitecture. It provides more compute and faster memory while improving security. Technologies like Intel TDX stand for strengthened VM isolation offering the most straightforward path to a greater security, compliance and control for legacy apps.

New Intel Xeon Gold 5^th Generation powered HGR-HCI and HGR-SDS lineup

The HGR-HCI lineup is aimed at hyperconverged infrastructures. It features Intel’s fifth generation of Xeon Gold processors in a dual-processor configuration. Starting with Intel Xeon Gold 5515+ in a 2×8 cores (2×16 threads) configuration (HGR-HCI-i1) it goes up to Intel Xeon Gold 6554S in 2×36 cores (2×72 threads) configurations (HGR-HCI-i4). Equipped with 256 GB of base DDR5 memory, all HGR-HCI-i flavors come with 2×960 GB SSD storage option that can be further customized when ordering with additional SSD capacity up to 3.84 TB.

The HGR-SDS lineup targets software defined storage infrastructures for use cases such as Database, Platform Object Storage and Big Data. The range is now equipped with Intel Xeon Gold Fifth Generation chips in a dual-processor configuration. HGR-SDS-1 Bare Metal server is powered by an Intel Xeon Gold 5515+ CPU in a 2×8 cores (2×16 threads) configuration and HGR-SDS-2 features Intel Xeon Gold 6542Y in 2×24 cores (2×48 threads) configuration. Both HGR-SDS-1 and HGR-SDS-2 are loaded with 256 GB of DDR5 memory (can be configured to up to 1.5 TB) and feature a 2x960GB based system SSD with options for SSD based storage at 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB or 15.36 TB.

The heavy storage variant of Bare Metal servers, HGR-STOR, designed for use cases such as archiving, disaster recovery and databases has also been updated. OVHcloud HGR-STOR-1 is now powered by the Intel Xeon Gold 6554S in a single processor configuration. With 36 cores and 72 threads, it comes 128 GB of DDR5 (up to 768 GB). The HGR-STOR-1 is equipped with a 2x 960 GB SSD-based storage and boasts additional storage of up to 36×22 TB SAS HDD for a whopping 792 TB in total. Customers can opt for a cache option with capacity up to 2x 15 TB to further optimize their storage performance.

Unmetered Guaranteed Bandwidth with up to 25 Gbps Private Network

OVHcloud’s new HGR-HCI-i, HGR-SDS and HGR-STOR-1 benefit from all the advantages of dedicated servers when it comes to flexibility, control, performance, and availability as well as 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps guaranteed and unmetered public bandwidth and up to 25 Gbps of unmetered private bandwidth. Through this offering, OVHcloud also provides companies with the best possible support for their workloads, environments, and ad-hoc technologies, while guaranteeing predictable pricing.

To further streamline resiliency, OVHcloud’s new HGR-HCI-i, HGR-SDS and HGR-STOR-1 servers benefit from a private network built from the ground up for redundancy. With two 25 Gbps links, the private network of those servers ensures critical applications and their data remain accessible so business operations continue uninterrupted.

Data Protection and Sustainability

The new OVHcloud HGR-HCI-i, HGR-SDS and HGR-STOR-1 Bare Metal servers also benefit from OVHcloud’s well-known expertise in infrastructure, offering a trusted cloud in environmentally friendly data centers. With the highest security and data protection standards in the form of ISO 27001 certification and HDS, customers benefit from a trusted Cloud. OVHcloud data centers take advantage of the company’s unique industrial model with a water-cooling system that contributes in a sustainable cloud allowing to reach best-in-class PUE/WUE indexes (see more data here).

Availability

Bare Metal HGR-HCI-i1 (2x8c/16t), HGR-HCI-i2 (2x16c/32t), HGR-HCI-i3 (2x24c/48t), HGR-HCI-i4 (2x36c/72t) are available for order now. Bare Metal HGR-SDS-1 (2x8x/16t) and HGR-SDS-2 (2x24c/48t) are available now. Bare Metal HGR-STOR-1 is scheduled for availability later this month.

New HGR-HCI-I, HGR-SDS and HGR-STOR are available in our data centers located in Canada, France, Germany, Poland, UK, USA and APAC.

OVHcloud continues its international expansion with the opening of a second Canadian site (the Group’s 42nd data centre), supported by a long-term investment of CAD 145 million. Located in Cambridge, Ontario, the OVHcloud data centre is in the heart of one of North America’s most dynamic innovation clusters, providing trusted cloud solutions meeting the heightened demands of Canadian businesses in terms of performance, resilience, and data governance.

A global player and European leader in cloud computing, OVHcloud has been established in Canada since 2011, where it employs 250 people and operates 90,000 servers hosted in one of the industry’s most eco-responsible data centres, located on Montreal’s South Shore. OVHcloud is opening its first site in Ontario, supported by a CAD 145 million investment over the next 8 years, to support the growth and needs of its customers within a framework of extended trust. Dedicated to the development of its new data centre and to the industrial innovations that are the hallmark of the trusted cloud leader, this investment includes, in its first phase, the hiring of a number of qualified talents.

Located in the Ascent TOR1 hyperscale development, this new data centre has a surface area of 1,000 m², a capacity of 10,000 servers and 2MW of power. More than just a data centre, it embodies the technological know-how that has earned OVHcloud its reputation for operational excellence and energy efficiency. Its vertically integrated model (OVHcloud builds its own servers, up to 600 a week in its Beauharnois plant) and the industrial scale-up of its water-cooling technology are major assets in guaranteeing an optimal performance-price ratio and a controlled environmental footprint, in line with the expectations of businesses that want to exercise full control over their digital assets. 

Giving companies greater control over their digital journey

In this age of hybrid and multi-cloud strategies, the arrival of OVHcloud in the Toronto area offers a real alternative for companies wishing to diversify and consolidate their cloud infrastructure, based on trusted solutions that meet a variety of requirements.

Reduced visibility of the macro-economic context calls for optimization of cloud spending, and OVHcloud meets this challenge with a pricing model that is predictable, has no hidden costs, charges no egress fees, and includes both inbound and outbound traffic.  

Guaranteeing enhanced resilience, thanks to a multi-site footprint, this new data centre is particularly well-suited to companies requiring a second, geographically-distant Canadian data centre to deploy their backup or disaster recovery solution. They can rely on the robustness of OVHcloud’s own network, connected to several points of presence (PoPs) in Montréal and Toronto, and more than 40 worldwide.

It will also meet the growing demands of highly regulated industries, increasingly intransigent about data sovereignty. Public services, healthcare, financial services, professional services, or telecommunications can count on OVHcloud’s exemplary level of compliance with the highest industry certifications (ISO 27001-017-018, SOC 2 Type 2, CSA Star), as well as the total immunity of its solutions to extraterritorial legislation, such as the US Cloud Act.

An evolving portfolio 

To meet these requirements, a varied and competitive range of solutions is now available in the Cambridge data centre:

• Scale and High Grade dedicated servers, designed for complex infrastructures and optimized for mission-critical workloads. Powered by the latest AMD and Intel processors, they meet the new challenges of hyper-convergence, storage and AI, without compromising on performance and availability. 
• A complete Object Storage solution compatible with the S3 API, as effective for platform modernization as for data backup.
• Network and connectivity options such as Additional IP for application flexibility, and Load Balancer for efficient load balancing across multiple data centres. Ascent TOR data centre has ultra low latency to the greater Toronto region.
• The OVHcloud Connect solution, which enables 100% private and highly resilient interconnection (SLA of 99.99%) of its on-prem infrastructure with the OVHcloud network.
• And, of course, emblematic (and free) OVHcloud services, such as the vRack private network, which connects services between several OVHcloud data centres, or Anti-DDoS to protect infrastructures against computer attacks.

In 2024, the Private Cloud solution leveraging VMware by Broadcom will be added, offering an additional option for companies wishing to boost their level of resilience by activating Veeam or Zerto virtualized solutions in a 100% dedicated environment.

Building a sustainable digital ecosystem

In a move towards regional integration similar to what it has been doing in Quebec for over 10 years, OVHcloud is committed to stimulating innovation and helping to build a trusted digital ecosystem in the Waterloo region – which includes the cities of Waterloo, Cambridge and Kitchener. This region is the entrepreneurial heart of the country, and together with Toronto forms an internationally renowned innovation corridor, the 2^nd largest technology hub in North America after Silicon Valley, and one of the world’s Top 20 startup ecosystems.

As such, start-ups’ appetite for cloud computing will naturally find refuge in the dedicated startup program that OVHcloud makes available to support innovation. Open to all, it offers selected startups up to $100,000 in infrastructure credits and personalized support based on open, reversible and interoperable cloud solutions.

Finally, OVHcloud’s commitment to sustainability is reflected positively in Ontario, which is over 90% powered by low-carbon energy sources. Its integrated industrial model and proprietary liquid cooling technology have enabled it to achieve some of the best energy efficiency ratings in the industry. OVHcloud is also the only cloud provider to offer its customers the opportunity to measure the carbon footprint of their cloud services, thanks to a carbon calculator that analyzes the entire lifecycle of their infrastructure, from manufacturing to operation (scope 1-2-3).

 OVHcloud today announces the opening of its first two public cloud ‘Local Zones’ with one site located in Madrid, Spain and the other in Brussels, Belgium. Driven by innovative technology from gridscale, OVHcloud’s latest acquisition, the Group can now deploy cloud capacity within weeks to

serve new international locations. The Local Zones in Belgium and Spain bring new options for customers to access the Group’s Public Cloud services, with low latency and local data residency.

The gridscale technology provides a software stack that lays the groundwork for the Group’s growth strategy in the Edge Computing market. Requiring only modest infrastructure, with effective hosting in colocation centres, Local Zones are more agile and flexible, but also less CAPEX intensive than regular Datacenters. This gives OVHcloud a significant competitive advantage and allows for the Group to rapidly deploy its Public Cloud environments.

An ambitious roadmap of up to 150 Local Zones to support a growing global market

In the context of a Cloud market growing globally, OVHcloud laid out an ambitious deployment plan to capture demand for cloud services in existing and new geographies. Targeting the opening of up to 150 Local Zones by 2026, the Group starts with regions where its own growth is the most important.

Throughout 2024 OVHcloud plans to open up to 15 Local Zones with the following non-exhaustive list of sites being considered. In Europe, the Group is preparing openings in Prague (Czech Republic), Marseille (France), Milan (Italy), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Zurich (Switzerland). New Local Zones are expected to open in the United States of America, including Atlanta (Georgia), Denver (Colorado), Chicago (Illinois), Dallas (Texas), New York City and San José (California).

The advantages of OVHcloud Open & Trusted Cloud

New OVHcloud Local Zones offer customers the advantage of the Group’s Open and Trusted Cloud and the benefits of data residency. With data now being closer to where it’s generated or needed, and accessible through the Cloud, customers are confident their data will stay within geographical boundaries defined by either local regulations or security policies. This is particularly important across industries such as consulting, financial services and healthcare.

Local Zones also confer better latency. That means that workloads with latency-sensitives services such as real-time analytics, E-commerce websites, Content Delivery Network (CDN) for replay and streaming videos, as well as Cloud gaming, will benefit from faster response times, providing a better user experience. For most customers, OVHcloud Local Zones offer single digit millisecond latencies enabling use cases such as high-performance Cloud gaming with minimal delays.

Organisations can now benefit from Local Zone Public Cloud features including Compute, Block Storage and Networking, including local Public IP. Additional services will be released in the coming months thanks to an iterative development model. Customers can expect future access to features such as Object Storage and Managed Rancher Service for Multi-cloud Kubernetes management.

OVHcloud new Local Zones in Spain and Belgium are also ISO/IEC 27001 certified, supplemented by the requirements of ISO/IEC 27017 specific to cloud services security and ISO/IEC 27018 for personal data protection. Those certifications ensure that businesses can deploy services in an OVHcloud environment with the highest security standards.

Availability

Available now, the Local Zone located in Madrid, Spain, is open in Beta with customers being able to deploy their Public Cloud services direct from the OVHcloud customer interface.

Available now, the Local Zone located in Brussels, Belgium, is open in Beta with customers being able to deploy their Public Cloud services direct from the OVHcloud customer interface.

Learn more about OVHcloud Local Zones here.

 OVHcloud, the European Cloud leader, today confirms it ambitions for AI, answering skyrocketing demand from its customer base, through an approach that makes AI simple and affordable. In an unprecedented context where generative AI has arguably taken the world by storm, OVHcloud has set itself on a mission to help customers grow their businesses by providing easy and affordable AI solutions, fueled by the latest GPU, all with the ultimate goal of democratizing AI. To make this AI revolution comes true, OVHcloud’s AI strategy focuses on offering four key items starting with efficient yet powerful compute resources, streamlined datasets, tooling in the form of software and cutting-edge skillsets.

Offering compute resources with a broad range of datacenter GPUs

To help organisations gain access to easy and affordable AI, OVHcloud leverages 20 years of expertise in infrastructure, through its unique vertically integrated model. As such, the Group provides eco-friendly compute resources benefiting from its bespoke watercooling system. Adding to previously announced NVIDIA DGX H100 available to select customers, the Group today launches new Compute GPU instances with 1x to 4x NVIDIA H100 PCIe GPU, high RAM allocation and local high-performance storage. Immediately available, the NVIDIA H100 PCIe joins existing NVIDIA A100 offer as well as new and forthcoming NVIDIA L40S, NVIDIA L4 and NVIDIA A10 options.

For customers in need of dedicated Bare Metal servers with GPU horsepower for use cases like Machine Learning, deep learning or deployment of LLM models, OVHcloud today unveils new HGR-AI-2 references powered by NVIDIA L40S GPU. Available this spring, new Bare Metal HGR-AI-2 leverages NVIDIA L40S GPU that benefits from fourth-generation Tensor Cores and FP8 Transformer Engine providing robust performance for AI workloads both in training and inferencing.

Customers looking for GPU-equipped Bare Metal servers can benefit from the new Bare Metal SCALE GPU launching later this year. With three new references in the SCALE GPU line, the Group is addressing use cases such as 3D Rendering, video processing and data inference all powered by NVIDIA L4 Datacenter GPU. Based on the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace GPU architecture, the NVIDIA L4 is a universal GPU for every workload with enhanced AI and video capabilities providing efficient compute resources for graphics, simulation, data science and data analytics.

Streamlining datasets with OVHcloud Data Platform maximizing data privacy

In addition to these technical resources, OVHcloud is making further data, tooling and skills assets available, in alignment with its vision for AI. The OVHcloud Data Platform is a new end-to-end data platform announced at OVHcloud Summit and provides a low code solution for management of the data pipeline and analytics. It provides customers with a complete and easy experience for their data journey offering the availability to collect (with more than 50 available connectors), store, manage, analyze, and visualize data.

Furthermore, the new solution also ensures that data is secure from unauthorized accesses and breaches while complying with laws and regulations. With the OVHcloud Data Platform, data scientists and business analysts can start new projects in just a few clicks by selecting information of interest in the Data Lakehouse. The solution is aimed at use cases like CRM enhancement or streamlined inventory management.

Providing tooling with serverless solutions for AI and a supporting ecosystem

To further help organizations in their data journey from ideation to production, OVHcloud has developed a complete set of serverless tools with AI Notebooks, AI Training and AI Deploy. OVHcloud AI solutions act as a complete set of tools that are easy to use, and designed to experiment with data, train models and put them into production.

Relying on high specification OVHcloud AI infrastructure, including recently announced NVIDIA H100 PCIe, A100, V100S and upcoming L40S and L4, these high-level software solutions leveraging industry standard technologies. They are designed to quickly and accessibly empower data scientists and machine learning engineers.

Additionally, OVHcloud is developing AI Endpoints, a new serverless solution targeted at developers and integrators. With OVHcloud AI Endpoints, the Group will enable access to diverse and various AI models with simple API endpoints that require little to no knowledge on the user side. Leveraging the Group’s infrastructure, OVHcloud AI Endpoints will fully respect data privacy (in/out) and will provide developers with a playground to test the Endpoints before placing API calls. With access to a number of market leading AI models such as BERT, YOLO or Mistral 7B, OVHcloud AI Endpoints is expected to offer a wide range of models when it launches.

OVHcloud is also launching AI App Builder, which is a fully managed serverless solution providing an easy way to build contextualized generative AI assistants. The tool allows customers to input their private datasets in a secured cloud environment, select cutting-edge LLM with just a single click and finally deploy code ready to use for their application. It is available today as an Alpha version here.

Finally, to support the broader ecosystem in the development of high-level AI skills, OVHcloud is working with a number of integrators and partners. The group is offering webinars and will attend the World AI Cannes Festival taking place in Cannes, France from February 8^th to 10^th. 

Pricing and availability

OVHcloud GPU instances based on NVIDIA H100 PCIe are available now on Public Cloud starting at CAD 4.05 per hour. Managed AI solutions based on H100 PCIe are available now at CAD 4.48 per hour (billing granularity per minute).

NVIDIA L40S, L4 and A10 GPU instances will be available this spring on Public Cloud starting at CAD 2.02 per hour for L40S instances and CAD 1.08 per hour for L4. New HGR-AI-2 Bare Metal Servers are expected to be available as build to order references in March in Canada (in Beauharnois and in a new data center located in Cambridge, Ontario), Europe and the United States before reaching Asia. New SCALE-GPU are launching later this year in the same geographical regions.

Resources

• Learn more about OVHcloud AI offers
• Discover OVHcloud Data Platform
• Discover OVHcloud AI App Builder