OVHcloud

OVH Groupe SA

Company type	Public (Société Anonyme)
Industry	Cloud computing, Internet services
Founded	November 1999 (1999-11)
Founder	Octave Klaba and family
Headquarters	Roubaix , France
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Octave Klaba (Chairman)
Products	VPS, dedicated servers, cloud solutions, email hosting, internet hosting
Website	www.ovhcloud.com

OVHcloud, officially known as OVH Groupe SA, is a French enterprise specializing in cloud computing, providing services such as VPS, dedicated servers, and various other internet solutions. Established in 1999 by the Klaba family, the company’s headquarters are located in Roubaix, France. In 2019, the organization rebranded its public identity to OVHcloud.

History and growth

The inception of OVH traces back to November 1999 when Octave Klaba, supported by family members Henry, Haline, and Miroslaw, founded the company.

In August 2023, OVHcloud commenced exclusive discussions to acquire gridscale GmbH, an edge computing software firm based in Cologne.

Data from W3Techs indicates that OVH hosts approximately 3.1% of all websites globally.

Funding

In October 2016, OVH secured $250 million in funding aimed at accelerating its global expansion efforts, which placed the company’s valuation above $1 billion. That same year, its revenue reached around $343 million. By 2018, OVH revealed intentions to triple its investment starting from 2021, with a planned expenditure ranging between $4.6 billion and $8.1 billion USD (equivalent to 4 to 7 billion euros) over a five-year span.

OVHcloud submitted its initial public offering (IPO) filing in October 2021 and is publicly traded on Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol OVH. By December 2021, it was incorporated into the Paris SBF120 stock index.

Operations

As of 2021, OVH managed a network of 30 data centers distributed across 19 countries, housing approximately 300,000 servers. The company operates customer service centers locally in Europe, North America, Africa, and Singapore. By 2019, it ranked among the world’s leading cloud providers with a customer base exceeding one million and boasted one of the largest deployments of OpenStack globally, supported by network bandwidth surpassing 20 Tbit/s.

OVH is also well-known for its extensive email hosting solutions alongside its broader internet hosting services.

The firm engineers and assembles proprietary servers built from standard components while utilizing a modular architecture based on shipping containers. The Beauharnois data center in Quebec exemplifies this scalable infrastructure approach.

In March 2025, OVHcloud US enhanced its network capabilities by launching a Local Zone in Seattle designed to optimize data processing speeds and connectivity for businesses in the Pacific Northwest region. This initiative aims to reduce latency and improve cloud application performance locally.

Partnerships

By 2016, OVH had established itself as a sponsor of Let's Encrypt, a free TLS encryption provider, underscoring its dedication to promoting secure web communications. The company’s hardware partner is Super Micro Computer Inc., while OVH enforces rigorous internal hardware validation procedures to maintain high standards of quality and security.

Certificates

In March 2025, OVHcloud received the SecNumCloud 3.2 certification from the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) for its Bare Metal Pod cloud platform. This accreditation highlights the platform’s adherence to stringent security protocols and strengthens OVHcloud’s reputation as a provider of secure cloud infrastructure tailored for public institutions and private enterprises alike, supporting compliance with strategic autonomy and sensitive operational requirements.

Incidents

In March 2021, a significant fire broke out at OVH's Strasbourg data center in France. The SBG2 site, constructed in 2016 and designed to accommodate 30,000 servers, was completely destroyed. This blaze also inflicted damage on the SBG1 facility and caused interruptions across all four Strasbourg locations. OVH’s chairman, Octave Klaba, confirmed that all employees were unharmed. Unfortunately, all client data and backups stored within SBG2 were lost. While SBG1 experienced partial damage, SBG4 remained unaffected, and SBG3 underwent a temporary power outage, necessitating the shutdown of servers.

By September 2021, OVH reported estimated losses amounting to around €105 million to the French financial authority, Autorité des marchés financiers. In 2023, the company was mandated to compensate two customers with €250,000 for data loss resulting from the fire. Additionally, more than 130 clients filed a class-action lawsuit concerning the incident.

WikiLeaks

In December 2010, reports from French media disclosed that WikiLeaks selected OVH as its hosting provider after being declined by Amazon. OVH promptly registered the domain and established secure hosting at its Roubaix data center, which temporarily hosted WikiLeaks’ publications before their relocation to Sweden. The situation prompted France's Industry Minister, Eric Besson, to pursue legal actions aimed at blocking WikiLeaks’ hosting within France; however, these attempts were unsuccessful. On December 6, 2010, a judicial ruling determined that OVH was not obligated to discontinue hosting WikiLeaks, emphasizing the necessity for a proper adversarial hearing.