Elastx vs Exoscale

Compare Elastx and Exoscale on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure

Elastx

Sweden· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist Elastx when you need a Sweden-only OpenStack public cloud with multi-AZ managed Kubernetes and DBaaS under a Swedish AB and self-operated Stockholm data centers. Skip when you need many global regions, hyperscaler managed-service breadth, or live migration as a platform feature—consider UpCloud, Scaleway, OVHcloud, or Azure/AWS instead depending on sovereignty vs scale tradeoffs.

Swedish OpenStack IaaSMulti-AZ managed KubernetesManaged DBaaSISO 27001/27017/27018 (claimed)Sweden data residencyHourly, no lock-in contracts

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Exoscale

Switzerland· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist Exoscale when you need multi-country European IaaS (CH/DE/AT/BG/HR zones), managed Kubernetes and open-source DBaaS under a Swiss operator in the A1 Telekom Austria group. Skip when you need hyperscaler global PaaS depth or bare-metal-first catalogs—consider OVHcloud or Scaleway instead, or AWS/Azure/GCP for worldwide regions.

EU/CH zones onlySwiss operator (Akenes SA)Managed Kubernetes (SKS)Managed DBaaSISO 27001/27017/27018 (claimed)Per-second pay-as-you-go

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Elastx vs Exoscale: Snapshot
Feature	Elastx	Exoscale
Country of origin	Sweden	Switzerland
Category	Cloud Computing	Cloud Computing
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	No	No
Headquarters	Sweden	Switzerland
Legal entity	Elastx AB	Akenes SA, Boulevard de Grancy 19A, 1006 Lausanne, Switzerland (CHE-423.524.322); member of A1 Digital International GmbH & Co KG / A1 Telekom Austria Group
Governing law	Not listed	Swiss law (DPA: canton of Vaud jurisdiction language)
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Low	Medium
Hosting / residency	Self-operated Swedish Tier 3 data centers; primary region se-sto with three Stockholm-area AZs (~20 km apart). Customer platform data documented as staying in Sweden; Swift object storage triple-replicated across AZs. Not sold as AWS/Azure/GCP regions. Website analytics: Piwik PRO. Optional products (Varnish CDN beta, Virtuozzo PaaS software, hybrid Cloud Connect/Exchange to other clouds) may add separate paths—confirm in DPA. No public full subprocessor inventory found.	Customer compute/storage/SKS on Exoscale European zones (CH-GVA-2, CH-DK-2, DE-FRA-1, DE-MUC-1, AT-VIE-1/2, BG-SOF-1, HR-ZAG-1); DBaaS orchestrated by Aiven Oy (Finland) on Exoscale compute. Client ops third parties include AWS (US) data archival, Twilio (US) auth, PayPal (US) payments—privacy policy states customer-uploaded service data is not sent to those ops providers.
Summary	Swedish cloud provider (Elastx AB) offering OpenStack IaaS, managed Kubernetes, DBaaS, and related services with data and operations kept in Sweden across three Stockholm availability zones.	European public cloud (IaaS) from Swiss operator Akenes SA (A1 Digital): multi-zone compute, managed Kubernetes (SKS), DBaaS, object and block storage, and GPUs across CH, DE, AT, BG, and HR.
Tags	cloud kubernetes iaas dbaas openstack swedish-cloud data-sovereignty	cloud kubernetes iaas dbaas gdpr switzerland european-cloud gpu

At a glance: Elastx vs Exoscale
At a glance	Elastx	Exoscale
HQ	Stockholm, Sweden (Elastx AB)	Lausanne, Switzerland
Founded	2012	Not listed
Primary region	se-sto — 3 AZs in Stockholm area	Not listed
Core stack	OpenStack IaaS, Kubernetes CaaS, DBaaS	Not listed
Commercial model	Hourly usage; no long-term lock-in contracts (vendor)	Not listed
Ownership	Swedish PE Sobro majority (~53%); no known US parent	Not listed
Legal entity	Not listed	Akenes SA (CHE-423.524.322)
Group	Not listed	A1 Digital / A1 Telekom Austria Group
Hosting	Not listed	European zones only (CH, DE, AT, BG, HR)
Model	Not listed	Public cloud IaaS + managed K8s/DBaaS
Self-host	Not listed	No (managed public cloud)

Key capabilities: Elastx vs Exoscale
Key capabilities	Elastx	Exoscale
Swedish OpenStack IaaS	Yes	Not listed
Multi-AZ managed Kubernetes	Yes	Not listed
Managed DBaaS	Yes	Yes
ISO 27001/27017/27018 (claimed)	Yes	Not listed
Sweden data residency	Yes	Not listed
Hourly, no lock-in contracts	Yes	Not listed
EU/CH zones only	Not listed	Yes
Swiss operator (Akenes SA)	Not listed	Yes
Managed Kubernetes (SKS)	Not listed	Yes
ISO 27001/27017/27018 (claimed)	Not listed	Yes
Per-second pay-as-you-go	Not listed	Yes

Elastx

OpenStack IaaS across three Stockholm AZs
Full virtual data center on OpenStack (Nova/Neutron/Cinder/Swift/Octavia/Barbican and related services): KVM instances, security groups, encrypted block and object storage, load balancers, and HSM-backed secrets. Primary region se-sto uses three separate data centers up to ~20 km apart; you pick AZ per resource. Marketplace-validated OpenStack public cloud; hourly metering. No live migration—design for multi-AZ yourself.
Managed multi-AZ Kubernetes (CNCF-certified)
Private Kubernetes clusters on Elastx OpenStack with at least three control-plane and three worker nodes spread across all three AZs. Fully managed option includes 24×7 cluster monitoring and planned rolling upgrades; non-managed includes office-hours upgrades/support without continuous monitoring. CNCF Certified Kubernetes Platform listing; OpenStack integration for persistent volumes and load balancers. Minimum production footprint is non-trivial—test clusters available under different terms.
Managed DBaaS with multi-engine choice
Self-service datastores for MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Valkey with automated provisioning, metrics UI, IP allowlisting, and MFA (TOTP/YubiKey) via Elastx Identity Provider. Single-node or primary plus one/two read replicas; multi-node layouts and backups use multiple Swedish AZs with automatic failover options. Backups land in triple-replicated Swift object storage. Customer owns query design, extra users/DBs, and restore decisions.
Platform security defaults and Swedish ops
Included L3/L4 DDoS protection, threat intelligence blocking, encryption at rest for ephemeral/volume/object storage, encrypted inter-AZ links, and HSM-backed secret management. Data centers described as Tier 3 with 24×7 staffing; staff described as Swedish citizens with annual background checks. Suits regulated buyers who want baseline controls without buying each security add-on separately—still shared responsibility for OS and app hardening on IaaS.
GPU and AI workloads on Swedish infrastructure
NVIDIA Ampere-class and related GPU flavors on OpenStack and Kubernetes for AI, analytics, and HPC-style jobs, plus an AI services offering framed around Swedish digital sovereignty and regulatory control. Useful when models or training data must stay in Sweden; not a substitute for evaluating the separate AI product scope, model licenses, or EU AI Act classification for your use case.

Exoscale

Multi-zone European KVM compute
Launch KVM instances in published zones across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Croatia. Families cover standard, CPU-, memory-, and storage-optimized profiles plus NVIDIA GPU shapes; anti-affinity groups, instance pools, snapshots, custom templates, security groups, and live migration support production patterns. Billed per second with powered-off storage semantics as documented.
SKS managed Kubernetes (CNCF certified)
Scalable Kubernetes Service deploys a managed control plane quickly (vendor claims under about a minute to two minutes). Starter is free without SLA; Pro adds HA control plane, etcd backups, and SLA language. Node pools use Exoscale instance types including GPUs; NLB, CSI storage, autoscaling/Karpenter (Pro), and vanilla CNCF-conformance positioning keep the stack portable.
Managed DBaaS on Exoscale compute (Aiven orchestration)
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey, Grafana, and related engines run as DBaaS with automated backups, plan scaling, and high-availability options. Orchestration subprocessor is Aiven Oy (Finland); database instances run on Exoscale infrastructure in the zone you choose—confirm geo-replication and plan limits in docs before multi-region designs.
S3-compatible object storage and block volumes
Simple Object Storage provides S3-compatible APIs for backups, media, and app assets integrated with Exoscale IAM and zones. Block storage attaches persistent NVMe-class volumes to instances and Kubernetes via CSI for stateful workloads without tying data solely to local disks.
IAM, private networks, and automation APIs
Fine-grained IAM on API keys, private networks, and network load balancers support multi-tier designs. Portal, CLI, API, and Terraform-friendly workflows match common European DevOps practice without requiring a proprietary control language.

Assurance & compliance: Elastx vs Exoscale
Assurance & compliance	Elastx	Exoscale
Independent security / pen-test audit (public)	Not found No public independent audit PDF or pen-test report located; ISO management-system claims are separate.	Partial Vendor states regular independent audits and publishes multi-framework certs via Compliance Center; not a VPN-style no-logs audit. Download current reports under account/NDA for verification.
ISO 27001 / 27017 / 27018	Vendor claimed Vendor states ISO 27001 since 2015 and current 27017/27018; request current certificates. Badge marked claimed.	Vendor claimed Vendor asserts ISO/IEC 27001:2022 ISMS certification since 2018; certificates via Compliance Center.
ISO 14001 (environmental)	Vendor claimed Vendor claims ISO 14001 with green electricity; Green Web Foundation badge linked on site.	Not listed
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 claim found on official product/trust pages reviewed.	Vendor claimed SOC 2 listed on compliance marketing; obtain report via Compliance Center / NDA.
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed Swedish AB; privacy policy; Sweden data residency claims; DPA path advertised. Confirm processor role wording in contract.	Vendor claimed Swiss entity; GDPR + Swiss FADP claims; EU zones; public DPA. Not legal advice.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial Swedish entity, no known US parent, self-operated SE DCs—not AWS/GCP/Azure primary hosting. Vendor claims Cloud Act–free. Public subprocessor inventory not found; optional hybrid links/CDN/SaaS tools can change residual risk. Indicative only—not legal advice.	Partial Swiss operator, no known US parent, European workload zones, and no third-party processor for compute/storage/SKS customer data. Medium residual path via US ops providers (AWS archival, Twilio auth, PayPal) listed for client data. DBaaS uses Aiven (Finland). Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed About page: ISO certifications and ability to enter DPAs for GDPR personal data. Obtain signed DPA + subprocessors in procurement.	Vendor claimed Public DPA for Akenes SA as processor; Swiss law; Aiven listed for DBaaS.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Core offering is IaaS/CaaS/DBaaS. Separate AI services exist—classify your own AI use case under the AI Act if applicable.	Not applicable Primary product is IaaS/managed infrastructure; customer AI workloads remain customer-controlled. Concrete AI offerings may need separate review if used as an AI system.
ISO 27017 (cloud security)	Not listed	Vendor claimed Listed on compliance site as certified cloud security controls.
ISO 27018 (cloud PII)	Not listed	Vendor claimed Listed on compliance site for personal data protection in public cloud.
BSI C5	Not listed	Vendor claimed BSI C5 listed among national/international standards on compliance page.
HDS (French health data hosting)	Not listed	Vendor claimed HDS listed on compliance page; confirm scope and zones for health workloads.
CSA STAR	Not listed	Vendor claimed CSA STAR listed on compliance page.

Considerations & known limitations: Elastx vs Exoscale
Considerations & known limitations	Elastx	Exoscale
No public subprocessor inventory	Medium Marketing/docs emphasize Swedish operations and ISO, but a complete public subprocessor list was not found. Request it with the DPA before treating residual transfer risk as zero.	Not listed
OpenStack operational constraints	Medium No live migration; no cross-AZ volume migration while attached; one router per project; floating-IP hairpin limits. Multi-AZ designs must be intentional—not automatic failover of every pattern.	Not listed
Sweden-centric footprint	Low Primary strength is Swedish residency; teams needing many non-Swedish regions will outgrow the geography and should evaluate multi-country EU clouds or hyperscalers.	Not listed
ISO claims need certificate pack	Low ISO 27001/27017/27018/14001 are vendor-claimed publicly; independent public audit PDFs for no-logs/pen-test not found. Procurement should verify current certificates.	Not listed
US third parties on client/ops path	Not listed	Medium Privacy policy lists AWS (US) data archival, Twilio (US) authentication, and PayPal (US) among client operations providers. Vendor states customer-uploaded service data is not transferred to these providers, but account/ops data paths still matter for CLOUD Act and transfer diligence.
DBaaS subprocessor (Aiven)	Not listed	Low Managed databases depend on Aiven Oy (Finland) for orchestration while instances run on Exoscale. Confirm contractual chain, access model, and zone placement for sensitive data.
Cert evidence mostly in customer portal / NDA	Not listed	Low ISO/SOC/C5/HDS claims are strong marketing signals, but full certificates and SOC reports typically require Compliance Center access or NDA—not fully public PDFs for all frameworks.
Narrower PaaS than hyperscalers	Not listed	Medium Expect solid IaaS, SKS, DBaaS, storage, and GPU—not the global proprietary service catalog of AWS/Azure/GCP. Validate feature gaps early for serverless, global edge, and specialized managed services.
Zone catalog evolves	Not listed	Low Public materials discuss further European expansion (e.g. Spain via A1 Digital messaging). Treat the live datacenters page as source of truth for residency commitments.

Fit

Elastx

Best fit when

Organizations that must keep infrastructure and personal data processing in Sweden under a Swedish legal entity
Platform teams that want OpenStack APIs, Terraform-friendly IaaS, and open standards without commercial lock-in contracts
Teams needing CNCF-aligned private Kubernetes with control planes and workers across three Swedish AZs
Product teams wanting managed MariaDB/MySQL/PostgreSQL/MSSQL/Valkey with multi-AZ options and object-storage backups
Buyers who value included baseline security (DDoS, threat intel, encryption at rest, HSM secrets) and 24×7 Swedish support

Poor fit when

Workloads that require many regions outside Sweden or a hyperscaler-scale SaaS/marketplace ecosystem
Architectures that depend on live migration or transparent cross-AZ volume moves (not supported)
Teams that only need a few simple VMs and prefer a minimal global UI over OpenStack operational depth
Buyers who require published independent pen-test/no-logs audit packs before shortlisting (not found publicly)

Consider instead when

When: You need high-performance IaaS across multiple European countries with a simpler product surface
Consider: UpCloud
Less Sweden-only OpenStack/K8s packaging; stronger multi-country footprint.
When: You want broad EU/FR developer cloud (bare metal, serverless, many regions) rather than Sweden-only OpenStack
Consider: Scaleway or OVHcloud
Different sovereignty and product mixes; not a drop-in OpenStack twin.
When: You need global regions and the deepest managed-service catalogs despite US CLOUD Act exposure
Consider: Microsoft Azure or AWS
Opposite sovereignty tradeoff.
When: Your RFP is pure Swedish public-sector OpenStack peers
Consider: Cleura or Safespring (evaluate off-catalog if not listed)
Closest Nordic sovereignty competitors.

Exoscale

Best fit when

Teams that must pin VMs, Kubernetes, and object storage to named European zones (including Swiss options)
SaaS and product orgs wanting SKS plus managed PostgreSQL/MySQL/Kafka/OpenSearch without running the control planes
Buyers who need a published DPA, zone list, and multi-framework compliance pack from a non-US legal entity
Workloads that fit IaaS plus managed open-source data services rather than proprietary global PaaS catalogs
Organizations evaluating A1 Digital / A1 Telekom Austria group cloud as a European alternative to AWS/Azure/GCP

Poor fit when

Products that depend on dozens of proprietary hyperscaler services or multi-continent active-active regions
Buyers who require zero US-group SaaS anywhere on the account path (privacy lists AWS archival, Twilio, PayPal for ops)
Teams seeking a fully self-hosted OpenStack/Kubernetes distribution rather than a managed public cloud
Bare-metal-heavy designs better served by large European bare-metal catalogs (e.g. OVHcloud)

Consider instead when

When: You need extensive bare-metal or a different pan-EU hosting footprint
Consider: OVHcloud
Often stronger metal catalog and broader hosting packaging; different sovereignty and product mix.
When: You want a developer-centric alternative with a different regional product mix
Consider: Scaleway
Common EU shortlist peer; compare zones, K8s, and storage packaging side by side.
When: You need global regions and deep proprietary PaaS/AI catalogs
Consider: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
Trade European-operator simplicity for worldwide service breadth and US CLOUD Act parent risk.

Open questions for due diligence

Elastx

Will Elastx provide a current ISO certificate package and statement of applicability under NDA?
What is the full subprocessor list for support, ticketing, email, monitoring, CDN, and any AI services?
Which optional services (Varnish CDN, Virtuozzo PaaS, hybrid Cloud Exchange links) process customer data outside Elastx-operated Swedish DCs?
What RTO/RPO and availability SLA apply to the specific SKUs under evaluation (IaaS vs managed K8s vs DBaaS)?

Exoscale

Download current ISO/SOC/C5/HDS certificates from the Compliance Center and verify auditor, scope, and expiry for your zones.
Confirm whether your use case can accept AWS/Twilio/PayPal on the account/ops path even if workload data stays on European Exoscale zones.
For DBaaS, document Aiven access boundaries, encryption, backup locations, and multi-zone replication behavior in writing.
If Spanish or other new zones are required, get contractual residency language rather than relying on roadmap announcements.
Clarify support plan SLAs and enterprise contracting terms beyond self-serve pay-as-you-go.