SAP vs Scaleway

Compare SAP and Scaleway on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Microsoft Azure

SAP

Germany· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist SAP when you need S/4HANA-class ERP breadth under a German parent entity and can fund a structured implementation. Skip when you want lightweight self-serve finance SaaS without a transformation partner. Consider Salesforce when CRM is the system of record, or a Microsoft Dynamics / Azure-centric stack when identity and productivity are already standardised on Microsoft.

EU-operatedFull ERP suiteS/4HANA CloudISO 27001 (claimed)B2B DPA published

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Scaleway

France· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist Scaleway for French-owned multi-AZ IaaS (Paris/Amsterdam/Warsaw) with bare metal, EU-resident GPUs and Kapsule Kubernetes—especially HDS/sovereignty-sensitive stacks. Skip if you need completed SecNumCloud today or hyperscaler global depth; consider OVHcloud, Exoscale/UpCloud, or AWS/Azure/GCP instead.

EU-operated regionsBare metal + Elastic MetalEU GPU for AIKapsule KubernetesISO 27001 (certified)HDS (claimed)

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

SAP vs Scaleway: Snapshot
Feature	SAP	Scaleway
Country of origin	Germany	France
Category	Cloud Computing	Cloud Computing
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	Yes	No
Headquarters	Germany	France
Legal entity	SAP SE, Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16, 69190 Walldorf (Mannheim HRB 719915)	SCALEWAY SAS (R.C.S. Paris 433 115 904), 8 rue de la Ville l'Évêque, 75008 Paris
Governing law	German entity; order forms may name local SAP affiliates	French law (General Terms of Services)
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Medium	Low
EU-hosted status	Partial	Not listed
Hosting / residency	Mixed: SAP-operated data centers (including Walldorf / St. Leon-Rot, Germany) plus Enterprise Cloud Services documented on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or customer data centers. Product-specific subprocessor lists are primarily on My Trust Center for customers.	Customer cloud workloads on Scaleway-operated European multi-AZ infrastructure (Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw; Milan listed in availability docs)—not primary hosting on AWS/GCP/Azure. Account/controller activities use processors; privacy policy allows some non-EU transfers under SCCs. Full named subprocessor table is via Trust Center/contracts rather than a fully public marketing page.
Summary	German-headquartered enterprise ERP suite (SAP Cloud ERP / S/4HANA) for finance, supply chain, procurement, and HR.	French iliad-group cloud platform: bare metal, virtual instances, EU-resident GPU for AI, managed Kubernetes, serverless, storage and databases on Scaleway-operated multi-AZ regions in Europe.
Tags	gdpr cloud erp enterprise s4hana	gdpr cloud infrastructure bare-metal kubernetes gpu european-cloud hds api terraform

At a glance: SAP vs Scaleway
At a glance	SAP	Scaleway
HQ	Walldorf, Germany	Paris, France (SCALEWAY SAS)
Legal entity	SAP SE (HRB 719915 Mannheim)	Not listed
Product focus	Cloud ERP / S/4HANA	Not listed
Commercial model	Enterprise subscription and licences (quote-based)	Pay-as-you-go; compute Savings Plans (GPU rules differ)
Open source	No	Platform proprietary; open standards (K8s, S3 API, Terraform)
Group	Not listed	iliad Group subsidiary
Regions	Not listed	Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw multi-AZ (+ Milan listed)
Model	Not listed	Public cloud IaaS/PaaS (not self-hosted)
Data residency regions	Customer-selectable; Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (incl. SAP DE sites and hyperscalers)	Not listed
Compliance certs (claimed)	ISO 27001, SOC 1/2, BSI C5, plus regional attestations via Trust Center	Not listed

Key capabilities: SAP vs Scaleway
Key capabilities	SAP	Scaleway
EU-operated	Yes	Yes
Full ERP suite	Yes	Not listed
S/4HANA Cloud	Yes	Not listed
ISO 27001 (claimed)	Yes	Yes
B2B DPA published	Yes	Not listed
Bare metal + Elastic Metal	Not listed	Yes
EU GPU for AI	Not listed	Yes
Kapsule Kubernetes	Not listed	Yes
HDS (claimed)	Not listed	Yes

SAP

SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP core
Public and private cloud editions cover finance, supply chain, procurement, sales, and related processes on an in-memory data model with role-based UX. Scope and extensibility differ between Public Edition (standardised) and Private Edition (closer to classic on-premises flexibility).
GROW and RISE packaging
SAP GROW targets organisations starting on standardised AI-enabled cloud ERP. RISE with SAP supports existing on-premises customers migrating toward cloud with transformation services. Packaging choice drives implementation shape more than feature marketing slides.
Integration via SAP BTP
SAP Business Technology Platform and Integration Suite provide APIs, iPaaS connectivity, and extension points to link SAP ERP with third-party and legacy systems. Expect integration projects rather than plug-and-play SMB connectors.
Selectable cloud regions and sovereign options
Customers can choose data center regions; SAP documents Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific availability, including SAP-operated German sites and hyperscaler regions. Sovereign / regulated options (for example German IT-Grundschutz messaging for SAP-owned facilities) exist but must be contracted explicitly.
Trust Center compliance artifacts
SAP publishes ISO 27001, SOC, C5, and other certificates plus DPAs through the Trust Center and customer portals. Audit reports for specific services are often gated to customers rather than fully public PDFs.

Scaleway

Elastic Metal, Dedibox and Apple Silicon bare metal
Single-tenant physical servers without a shared hypervisor layer: Dedibox for a wide dedicated catalogue, Elastic Metal for bare metal integrated with Scaleway VPC, load balancing, storage and Kubernetes, plus Apple Silicon Mac mini hosts for native macOS/iOS CI. Best when you need hardware isolation, custom kernels, or GPU bare metal without VM overhead—product lines are still converging, so compare availability zone coverage per SKU.
EU-resident GPU instances for AI training and inference
On-demand GPU VMs with recent NVIDIA options (including L4, L40S, H100 PCIe/SXM and B300-SXM) aimed at LLM fine-tuning, inference and graphics/media acceleration, with data residency in European regions. Integrates with Kapsule via the NVIDIA GPU Operator; pay-as-you-go by the minute. GPU capacity and Savings Plan eligibility differ from general instances—validate stock and zone before committing multi-node jobs.
Kubernetes Kapsule and multi-cloud Kosmos
Managed Kubernetes control planes on Scaleway nodes (Kapsule) with autoscaling-oriented operations, plus Kosmos for hybrid/multi-cloud worker pools including non-Scaleway infrastructure. Suits teams standardising on portable Kubernetes rather than proprietary orchestrators; external Kosmos pools remain your responsibility to patch and size.
Multi-AZ European regions with VPC networking
Place compute and storage in Paris, Amsterdam and Warsaw multi-AZ regions (docs also reference Milan), using regional private networking, load balancers and related network services. Useful for EU latency and residency designs without a US region on the primary map—confirm each product’s AZ matrix in the product-availability guide before multi-region DR planning.
Managed storage and databases on open-ish APIs
S3-compatible Object Storage (including multi-AZ class options), block volumes, and managed database engines (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, ClickHouse-oriented analytics) plus serverless containers/functions/jobs. Reduces day-2 ops for common stack pieces while keeping export paths closer to open standards than pure proprietary PaaS—always check engine versions, HA options and backup retention for production.
API, CLI and Terraform-first operations
Full console plus documented APIs, CLI and Infrastructure-as-Code workflows for provisioning instances, networks and managed services. Fits platform teams automating environments; IAM permissions and account Owner roles still need deliberate design for production orgs.

Assurance & compliance: SAP vs Scaleway
Assurance & compliance	SAP	Scaleway
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not applicable ERP suite; not a no-logs privacy network product. Rely on SOC/ISO/C5 attestations instead.	Not applicable IaaS provider (not a no-logs VPN). Trust Center references penetration testing and security reports available on request; not a public no-logs audit product claim.
ISO 27001	Vendor claimed Trust Center lists ISO 27001 certificates for cloud services and publishes certificate finder entries (e.g. Central / Enterprise Cloud Services).	Verified ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate documentation published (e.g. certificate IS 787020 for SCALEWAY, Paris). Confirm scope covers the services you buy.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Vendor claimed SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports described on Trust Center; many reports customer-gated via SAP for Me / My Trust Center.	Not found Not listed among public Trust Center compliance badges reviewed (GDPR, HDS, ISO 27001, CSA STAR L1).
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed EU parent entity; Trust Center privacy pages and DPAs reference GDPR processing terms.	Vendor claimed EU controller/processor with published privacy policy and DPA; French entity. Not legal advice.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial German SAP SE parent with no known US parent, but Enterprise Cloud Services explicitly include AWS, Azure, and GCP paths. Medium exposure for hyperscaler-backed tenants. Not legal advice.	Partial French SAS / iliad Group; customer IaaS on self-operated EU regions; no US parent found. Controller-side processors and possible third-country transfers per privacy policy; SecNumCloud not complete. Assessment only—not a vendor “safe” claim.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed SAP states it signs DPAs; Trust Center hosts Data Processing Agreement documents for cloud, support, and professional services.	Vendor claimed DPA PDF downloadable on https://www.scaleway.com/en/contracts/ alongside TOMs.
BSI C5	Vendor claimed Trust Center lists Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5) audit reports among EU regional offerings.	Not listed
EU AI Act	Partial SAP publishes EU AI Act governance materials for Joule Agents and AI features; customer still must assess in-scope AI uses.	Not applicable Infrastructure/GPU host; customer models and apps drive AI Act roles. Not an AI Act conformity product claim.
HDS (French health data hosting)	Not listed	Vendor claimed Vendor security and healthcare pages claim HDS certification; Trust Center lists HDS. Confirm certified service scope for your architecture.
CSA STAR Level 1	Not listed	Vendor claimed Trust Center announces CSA STAR Level 1 (CCM self-assessment / CAIQ).
ANSSI SecNumCloud	Not listed	Partial Qualification process started (public news); security pages mark SecNumCloud as ongoing—not obtained as a finished qualification in sources reviewed.

Considerations & known limitations: SAP vs Scaleway
Considerations & known limitations	SAP	Scaleway
Hyperscaler hosting is common	Medium Even with a German parent, many cloud tenants run on AWS, Azure, or GCP. EU region selection does not remove US-group infrastructure operators from the path. Confirm contracted region and subprocessors.	Not listed
Heavy implementation programmes	Medium S/4HANA and RISE projects typically need partners, data migration, and process redesign. Poor fit if you expected self-serve SaaS onboarding.	Not listed
Detailed subprocessor lists often customer-gated	Low Public pages confirm lists exist on My Trust Center, but a full anonymous dump was not available in this research pass. Request the list for your exact cloud service before security sign-off.	Not listed
Catalog category is Cloud Computing, not ERP	Low EuropeanStack has no dedicated ERP category yet. This entry is filed under Cloud Computing as the closest existing slug.	Not listed
SecNumCloud not yet obtained	Not listed	Medium ANSSI SecNumCloud is in progress on public materials. Regulated French public-sector tenders that hard-require a qualified cloud today may need another SKU/provider or a delayed migration plan.
Smaller service catalogue than US hyperscalers	Not listed	Medium Expect fewer proprietary managed services and less global region density than AWS/Azure/GCP. Multi-cloud or complementary SaaS may still be required for parts of the estate.
Account-plane processors and possible non-EU transfers	Not listed	Low Even with EU workload regions, privacy policy allows processor use and SCC-backed transfers for some controller purposes (support, payments, marketing, etc.). Pull the live subprocessor list for DPIAs.
Shared responsibility for guest security	Not listed	Medium Scaleway secures the platform; you own OS hardening, IAM, application security, encryption keys and backups. Recent Trust Center advisories on kernel issues illustrate customer patching duties on instances and Kapsule nodes.
Dedibox vs Elastic Metal product split	Not listed	Low Two bare-metal experiences still coexist while Scaleway documents convergence. Mis-choosing the line can affect API integration, networking features and migration effort.

Fit

SAP

Best fit when

Midsize to large enterprises consolidating finance, supply chain, and procurement on one ERP
Organisations that need deep industry process templates and multi-country localisation
Buyers that require a German / EU parent contracting entity plus formal Trust Center attestations
Existing SAP ECC customers planning a RISE or S/4HANA transformation
Teams with budget for partner-led implementation rather than pure self-serve SaaS

Poor fit when

Startups or SMBs needing only simple invoicing without ERP programme overhead
Buyers that require a guaranteed EU-only, non-hyperscaler hosting path without reading the contract region
Teams seeking an open-source ERP they can fork and fully self-operate without vendor lock-in
CRM-first organisations where Salesforce-class customer platforms are the real system of record

Consider instead when

When: Your primary system of record is CRM and revenue operations, not manufacturing or complex finance
Consider: Salesforce
Stronger CRM depth; US parent and different compliance posture.
When: You already standardise on Microsoft identity, M365, and Azure and want ERP in that estate
Consider: Microsoft 365 / Azure-centric Dynamics stacks
Compare total cost of identity + productivity + ERP under one US vendor.
When: You need a smaller European mid-market ERP without S/4HANA transformation scope
Consider: Evaluate EU mid-market ERP vendors outside this catalog (no peer ERP slug listed yet)
Catalog currently lacks a direct European ERP alternative entry.

Scaleway

Best fit when

Teams that need compute, storage, networking and managed Kubernetes in documented EU multi-AZ regions under a French legal entity
AI/ML workloads that require NVIDIA GPUs with European data residency rather than US-region training defaults
Workloads that benefit from single-tenant bare metal (Elastic Metal or Dedibox) alongside cloud APIs
Healthtech or French-market buyers that need HDS-oriented hosting signals plus a published B2B DPA
Platform engineers standardising on Terraform/API-driven provisioning with S3-compatible storage and managed Postgres/MySQL

Poor fit when

Organisations that require a finished ANSSI SecNumCloud qualification on day one (process is ongoing, not completed on public pages)
Architectures that must run primary production in US or APAC regions on the same cloud account
Buyers that need the full hyperscaler catalogue (global edge, proprietary PaaS density, enterprise marketplace breadth)
Teams expecting a self-hosted “install Scaleway on your own DC” product rather than a managed cloud
Procurement processes that accept only SOC 2 Type II as the primary assurance artefact (not surfaced as a public Trust Center badge here)

Consider instead when

When: You need completed SecNumCloud-qualified private cloud or a larger non-EU region footprint under one European operator
Consider: OVHcloud
Compare exact qualified product SKUs and region maps; OVH and Scaleway are both French industrial clouds with different strengths.
When: You want simpler EU VPS/dedicated economics with a smaller product surface
Consider: UpCloud, Exoscale, or Cyso Cloud
Leaner catalogues; validate GPU, HDS and multi-AZ needs separately.
When: You need maximum global managed-service depth and partner ecosystem
Consider: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
Accept US-parent CLOUD Act exposure and design residency/controls explicitly.
When: German SMB hosting plus EU cloud under a DE-centric brand is the priority
Consider: IONOS
Different product mix and market focus than Scaleway’s developer/AI-oriented public cloud.

Open questions for due diligence

SAP

Which exact cloud service and region would this buyer contract (Public Edition vs Private Edition vs RISE on which hyperscaler)?
Will the order form be with SAP SE or a local affiliate, and which governing law clause applies?
Can the vendor provide the current subprocessor list and SOC/C5 reports for the specific service code without an existing customer login?

Scaleway

What is the exact HDS certificate scope (services, regions, shared responsibility) for our architecture?
What is the current ANSSI SecNumCloud milestone and target date for the SKUs we would buy?
Which named subprocessors (including any non-EU) process account, billing, support or security telemetry data?
For multi-region DR, which products are GA in each AZ (including Milan) at contract time?
Are independent SOC 2 / C5 or other reports available under NDA if our assurance programme requires them?