Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS

Compare Exoscale and Unomed Cloud PACS on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

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

Logo: Exoscale

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
Logo: Unomed Cloud PACS

Unomed Cloud PACS

Switzerland· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist for Swiss practices that want a cloud DICOM archive, browser viewing and referrer sharing without replacing their PIS, and that accept a Zurich SaaS vendor with claimed Swiss image hosting. Skip when you need a default CE-marked diagnostic viewer, a fully public subprocessor and audit pack, or a self-hosted PACS you operate yourself. Consider PostDICOM or a classic on-prem PACS plus sharing tool when those constraints dominate.

Swiss-operatedCloud PACS / VNADICOM archiveBrowser viewerPIS overlay
Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS: Snapshot
FeatureLogo: ExoscaleExoscaleLogo: Unomed Cloud PACSUnomed Cloud PACS
Country of originSwitzerlandSwitzerland
CategoryCloud ComputingCloud Computing
Open sourceNoNo
Self-hostedNoNo
HeadquartersSwitzerlandSwitzerland
Legal entityAkenes SA, Boulevard de Grancy 19A, 1006 Lausanne, Switzerland (CHE-423.524.322); member of A1 Digital International GmbH & Co KG / A1 Telekom Austria GroupUnomed AG
Governing lawSwiss law (DPA: canton of Vaud jurisdiction language)Not listed
US parent / controlNo known US parentNo known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)MediumMedium
EU-hosted statusNot listedPartial
Hosting / residencyCustomer 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.Vendor claims primary hosting, databases and DICOM storage in Switzerland. Privacy policy lists identity/liveness processing in EU (Ireland) and speech recognition in EU (Denmark). API CSP references AWS S3 eu-central-2 (Zurich) and AWS Rekognition/Cognito eu-west-1; push via Firebase; website may use Cloudflare WAF cookies and Google Analytics. Named subprocessor list on request only.
Summary

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.

Swiss cloud PACS and vendor-neutral archive for storing, viewing and sharing DICOM medical images in the browser, integrated with existing medical practice workflows.

Tags
At a glance: Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS
At a glanceLogo: ExoscaleExoscaleLogo: Unomed Cloud PACSUnomed Cloud PACS
HQLausanne, SwitzerlandZurich, Switzerland
Legal entityAkenes SA (CHE-423.524.322)Unomed AG (CHE-374.858.885)
GroupA1 Digital / A1 Telekom Austria GroupNot listed
HostingEuropean zones only (CH, DE, AT, BG, HR)Not listed
ModelPublic cloud IaaS + managed K8s/DBaaSNot listed
Self-hostNo (managed public cloud)Not listed
Product typeNot listedCloud PACS / VNA SaaS
Self-hostedNot listedNo (local connector only)
Default viewerNot listedOHIF (not for diagnosis per GTCs)
Data residency regionsNot listedSwitzerland claimed for DICOM/hosting; some auxiliary processing in EU (IE/DK) per privacy policy
Key capabilities: Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS
Key capabilitiesLogo: ExoscaleExoscaleLogo: Unomed Cloud PACSUnomed Cloud PACS
EU/CH zones onlyYesNot listed
Swiss operator (Akenes SA)YesNot listed
Managed Kubernetes (SKS)YesNot listed
Managed DBaaSYesNot listed
ISO 27001/27017/27018 (claimed)YesNot listed
Per-second pay-as-you-goYesNot listed
Swiss-operatedNot listedYes
Cloud PACS / VNANot listedYes
DICOM archiveNot listedYes
Browser viewerNot listedYes
PIS overlayNot listedYes

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.

Unomed Cloud PACS

  • Cloud DICOM archive (VNA-style)

    Central archive for studies from in-house modalities and external institutes, with DICOM export so you can take the archive with you. Storage is billed as you grow; long-term statutory retention remains the customer's duty under Unomed's terms.

  • Zero-footprint browser viewer (OHIF default)

    Open studies in the browser with nothing installed on the workstation. OHIF is the default; other viewers can be connected on request. Unomed's GTCs state the standard viewer is not authorised for diagnostic reporting.

  • PACS inbox with assisted patient matching

    Inbound studies land in an inbox; Unomed suggests the matching patient (including fuzzy name matches) and a human confirms. Useful when institutes send studies that do not already carry a clean order from your record.

  • Share via messenger and guest links

    Send studies to colleagues, referrers and patients through Unomed messenger. Recipients without an account get a time-limited guest link; registered users keep the thread in case chat instead of CDs or ad-hoc portals.

  • Cloud Connector, Radiology Bridge and Medical API

    Connect DICOM modalities like a second destination printer, autoroute from an existing institute PACS via Radiology Bridge, or integrate via DICOMweb/Medical API. Keeps on-site PACS investments when you only need outbound routing to Unomed practices.

  • Overlay on existing practice software

    Opens studies from the patient record in supported web-based Swiss practice systems without replacing the PIS. Vendor lists 16+ systems with several official partners; desktop-only software needs a feasibility discussion.

Assurance & compliance: Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS
Assurance & complianceLogo: ExoscaleExoscaleLogo: Unomed Cloud PACSUnomed Cloud PACS
Independent security / control audit
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.

Not found

No public independent security audit report located on unomed.ch.

ISO 27001
Vendor claimed

Vendor asserts ISO/IEC 27001:2022 ISMS certification since 2018; certificates via Compliance Center.

Not found

No ISO 27001 certificate or registry entry found on the official site.

ISO 27017 (cloud security)
Vendor claimed

Listed on compliance site as certified cloud security controls.

Not listed
ISO 27018 (cloud PII)
Vendor claimed

Listed on compliance site for personal data protection in public cloud.

Not listed
SOC 2 / SOC 3
Vendor claimed

SOC 2 listed on compliance marketing; obtain report via Compliance Center / NDA.

Not found

No SOC 2/3 report referenced on public pages reviewed.

BSI C5
Vendor claimed

BSI C5 listed among national/international standards on compliance page.

Not listed
HDS (French health data hosting)
Vendor claimed

HDS listed on compliance page; confirm scope and zones for health workloads.

Not listed
CSA STAR
Vendor claimed

CSA STAR listed on compliance page.

Not listed
GDPR / EU data protection
Vendor claimed

Swiss entity; GDPR + Swiss FADP claims; EU zones; public DPA. Not legal advice.

Vendor claimed

Swiss FADP (DSG) primary; privacy policy also cites GDPR bases. Confirm DPA/ABV for your use case.

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)
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.

Partial

Swiss entity / no known US parent, but AWS (S3 Zurich region, Rekognition Ireland) and Firebase appear in public technical/privacy materials. Not legal advice.

Data processing agreement (B2B)
Vendor claimed

Public DPA for Akenes SA as processor; Swiss law; Aiven listed for DBaaS.

Vendor claimed

GTCs require an Auftragsbearbeitungsvertrag (ABV) when patient data is processed on behalf of the healthcare provider.

EU AI Act
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.

Not applicable

PACS archive/viewer product; AI is used for assisted patient matching and other suite features, but this entry evaluates the imaging archive, not an AI-centric system.

Diagnostic viewer certificationNot listed
Partial

Default OHIF viewer explicitly not for diagnosis per GTCs; certified third-party viewers optional.

Considerations & known limitations: Exoscale vs Unomed Cloud PACS
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: ExoscaleExoscaleLogo: Unomed Cloud PACSUnomed Cloud PACS
US third parties on client/ops path
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.

Not listed
DBaaS subprocessor (Aiven)
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.

Not listed
Cert evidence mostly in customer portal / NDA
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.

Not listed
Narrower PaaS than hyperscalers
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.

Not listed
Zone catalog evolves
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.

Not listed
US-group cloud components in the data pathNot listed
Medium

Even with Swiss HQ and claimed Swiss image hosting, AWS and Firebase endpoints appear in public privacy/CSP materials. Procurement should obtain the named subprocessor annex and assess CLOUD Act residual risk.

Default viewer not for diagnosisNot listed
High

If radiologists must report from the included viewer, Unomed alone is the wrong shortlist item unless a certified diagnostic viewer is contracted.

No public ISO/SOC or independent auditNot listed
Medium

Assurance currently rests on vendor policies, Swiss entity status and contractual ABV rather than published certificates.

Subprocessor list not publishedNot listed
Medium

Privacy policy says processors can be requested at any time but does not name hosting vendors on the page. Blockers for security questionnaires until the annex is shared.

Fit

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.

Unomed Cloud PACS

Best fit when

  • Swiss medical or dental practices that want cloud DICOM archive and sharing without an on-site PACS project
  • Teams that must open imaging from an existing web-based practice system rather than a second patient search
  • Institutes that need to autoroute studies to referring practices while keeping an existing PACS (Radiology Bridge)
  • Buyers who prioritise a Swiss contracting entity and vendor-claimed Swiss image residency under the FADP
  • Workflows that share studies with referrers or patients via links instead of CDs or one-off portals

Poor fit when

  • Organisations that require the included viewer to be a certified diagnostic/reporting workstation out of the box
  • Buyers that need a published named subprocessor list and independent ISO/SOC evidence before first sales call
  • Teams seeking a fully self-hosted open-source PACS they operate themselves
  • Hospitals needing a full RIS/PACS suite beyond practice-oriented cloud archive and sharing

Consider instead when

  • When: You need a European cloud PACS peer outside Switzerland or broader multi-country packaging

    Consider: PostDICOM (Netherlands) or other EU cloud PACS vendors

    Feature parity is not claimed; compare residency contracts and viewer certification directly.

  • When: You primarily need raw cloud object storage or hospital-grade imaging services on a hyperscaler

    Consider: AWS or Azure health/imaging stacks with your own viewer and compliance design

    More infrastructure flexibility; you own more of the clinical workflow glue.

  • When: You must keep all image data on premises under your sole operational control

    Consider: Classic on-prem PACS plus a dedicated sharing portal

    Unomed is cloud SaaS with a local connector, not a self-hosted Unomed server product.

Open questions for due diligence

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.

Unomed Cloud PACS

  • Will Unomed provide the current named subprocessor list (hosting, backup, email, SMS, identity) under NDA or in the ABV annex?
  • Which exact Swiss data-centre operators and certifications cover the DICOM archive?
  • Is a CE-marked / certified diagnostic viewer required for your reporting workflow, and which third-party option will Unomed integrate?
  • What SLA, backup/RPO and export support apply to your Cloud PACS tier?