Introduction

Ethereum is quickly becoming known as one of the most efficient and flexible blockchain networks in the world, enabling financial organisations and individuals alike to create smart contracts that can power the likes of decentralised finance (DeFi) applications and NFT ecosystems. Ethereum is one of the foundations of Web3, providing a decentralised, scalable and secure network where builders can create the digital economy of the future.

But how do you get started? In this tutorial, we provide a guide to deploying and operating an Ethereum node on an OVHcloud public server. By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional Ethereum node running on OVHcloud, following best practices for reliability and maintainability.

The security hardening and operational best practices required to fully protect an Ethereum node are beyond the scope of this tutorial. Users are strongly advised to implement additional security measures — such as firewall configuration, key management, and monitoring — according to their organizational requirements and industry best practices.

All set? Let’s get started.

Launching an instance

Navigate to the OVHcloud Control Panel, and under the Public Cloud section, select Instances. From there, click on Create an Instance to begin the provisioning process.

To run an Ethereum node reliably, the hardware specifications must meet the client software’s minimum requirements. According to the Ethereum Foundation documentation, an Ethereum node requires at least:

● Execution client: 2 CPU cores, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of fast SSD storage.

● Consensus client: 2 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, and access to the same storage.

For production environments and long-term stability, higher specifications are strongly recommended. In this tutorial, we will provision an instance with 2 vCores and 30 GB of RAM, which satisfies the minimum combined requirements for running both the execution and consensus clients on a single machine.

Within the Memory Optimized category, locate the instance type named R2-30 and select it for deployment.

Next, select the geographic location for your instance. The choice of region may affect latency, network performance, and regulatory considerations. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will deploy the node in the Frankfurt data center, which provides low-latency connectivity within Europe and is well-suited for Ethereum node operations.

It is worth noting that maintaining nodes in different geographic regions contributes to the overall resilience and decentralization of the Ethereum network. Geographical diversity helps reduce the risk of localized outages and improves redundancy across the infrastructure.

Now, select the operating system image for your instance. For this tutorial, we will use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Next, select the public SSH key that will be associated with your instance. This key will be installed on the server during provisioning and will serve as the primary authentication method for secure remote access. After the instance is launched, you will be able to connect to it via SSH using the corresponding private key. This approach eliminates the need for password-based logins and significantly enhances security by enforcing key-based authentication.

Assign a descriptive name to your instance (e.g., eth-node-fra-01) following your organization’s naming convention. If your workflow uses tags or labels, add ones that identify the role (execution/consensus), environment (prod/stage), and region (FRA). OVHcloud also allows attaching a post-installation script (cloud-init user data) to automate provisioning; however, this tutorial proceeds step-by-step, so leave that field empty.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will simply assign the instance the name OVHnode.

Configure the network access by selecting Public mode, which will assign the instance a public IP address and enable external connectivity. This setting is required for the node to participate in the Ethereum network. Next, choose your preferred billing method.

Finally, click on Create an Instance to launch the deployment process. OVHcloud will provision the server with the selected configuration, and within a few minutes, the instance will be available and running. At this point, your Ethereum node host environment is ready for initial access and further configuration.

Adding Storage

The next step is to provision persistent storage for the Ethereum blockchain data. In the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to the Block Storage section from the side menu, and click on Create a Volume. This volume will serve as the primary data store for the Ethereum chain, ensuring durability and scalability independent of the compute instance.

When creating the storage volume, ensure that you select the same region as your compute instance. This is essential to guarantee low-latency access and to allow the volume to be attached directly to your node without cross-region performance penalties.

OVHcloud provides three categories of block storage volumes:

• Classic HDD – 500 IOPS guaranteed.
• High-Speed SSD – up to 3,000 IOPS.
• High-Speed Gen2 – up to 20,000 IOPS.

Running an Ethereum node requires high-performance storage due to the constant read and write operations needed to synchronize the blockchain and access block and state data. For this reason, we strongly recommend selecting a High-Speed Gen2 volume, which delivers the necessary throughput and input/output operations per second (IOPS) to ensure stable node performance.

Both the Ethereum Execution Layer (EL) client and the Consensus Layer (CL) client require significant disk capacity to store blockchain data, state, and historical records. A minimum of 2 TB of storage is recommended to operate a full mainnet node reliably. When creating the block storage volume in OVHcloud, set the capacity to 2 TB and select the High-Speed Gen2 option to ensure sufficient performance for synchronization and long-term operation.

Assign a descriptive name to the storage volume to simplify management and identification. For example, you may name it chaindata to clearly indicate its role as the primary data store for the node.

Once all parameters have been configured — including the region, storage type, capacity, and name — click on Create Volume. OVHcloud will provision the block storage resource, which will then be available to attach to your Ethereum node instance.

Mounting the Volume

After the new volume appears as available in the OVHcloud Control Panel, attach it to your Ethereum node instance. To do this, open the ⋮ (more options) menu next to the volume entry and select Attach to an Instance. From the list of instances, choose the node you previously created. The volume will then be linked to that instance and accessible as an additional block device.

Now, establish a secure connection to your server via SSH. Use the following command from your local terminal, replacing IPaddress with the public IP assigned to your instance:

ssh ubuntu@IPaddress

By default, OVHcloud instances provisioned with the Ubuntu image create a user named ubuntu, which you should use for the initial connection. Authentication will be handled through the SSH key you configured during instance creation.

Once connected to the instance, run the following command to list all available block devices:

lsblk

This will display a tree view of the system’s storage devices, including the root disk and the newly attached block storage volume. Identify the additional device (e.g., /dev/sdb) that corresponds to the 2 TB volume you created in OVHcloud. This device will later be formatted and mounted to store the Ethereum blockchain data.

Next, create a partition on the newly attached volume. Replace /dev/sdb with the device name identified in the previous step if it differs. Execute:

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

This command will open the partitioning utility for the selected block device. From there, you can create a new primary partition that spans the entire disk. Once complete, the partition will typically be available as /dev/sdb1.

Once the partition has been created (e.g., /dev/sdb1), format it with the ext4 filesystem so it can be mounted and used by the operating system. Run the following command:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

This will initialize the partition with an ext4 filesystem, which is a stable and widely supported choice for storing Ethereum chain data.

Now, create a dedicated directory to serve as the mount point for the formatted volume, then mount it and verify that it has been successfully attached to the filesystem. Execute the following commands:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/chaindata

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/chaindata

df -h

• mkdir -p /mnt/chaindata creates the mount directory (using -p ensures no error if intermediate directories are missing).
• mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/chaindata mounts the formatted partition to the directory.
• df -h displays all mounted filesystems in a human-readable format, allowing you to confirm that /dev/sdb1 is correctly mounted at /mnt/chaindata with the expected capacity (approximately 2 TB).

At this point, your disk is mounted and ready for use. However, the configuration is not persistent: if the server restarts, the volume will need to be mounted manually. To ensure the volume is mounted automatically at boot, we must configure it in the /etc/fstab file.

First, retrieve the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) of your volume by running:

sudo blkid

This command lists all block devices and their associated attributes. Identify the entry corresponding to your new partition (e.g., /dev/sdb1) and copy the value of its UUID field, which will be used in the fstab configuration.

Next, edit the /etc/fstab file to configure the automatic mount. Open the file with your preferred text editor, for example:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Then add the following line at the end of the file, replacing the UUID with the one obtained from the previous blkid command:

UUID=e146e498-bba2-4574-9b47-b54fffea77e7 /mnt/chaindata ext4 nofail 0 0

This entry ensures that the partition will be mounted at /mnt/chaindata automatically on every system boot. The nofail option allows the system to continue booting even if the device is unavailable.

Your storage volume is now fully configured and ready to be used for storing Ethereum blockchain data. With the automatic mount entry in place, the system will make the volume available at /mnt/chaindata on every reboot, ensuring a stable and persistent data directory for your node.

Create a dedicated user

Next, create a dedicated user account to manage all Ethereum node operations. This practice improves security by separating node processes from the default system user. Run the following commands:

sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /home/node_admin/ -m -G sudo node_admin

echo 'node_admin:MySuperPassword123' | sudo chpasswd

sudo mkdir -p /home/node_admin/.ssh

• useradd creates a new user named node_admin, with a home directory, bash shell, and membership in the sudo group.
• chpasswd sets an initial password for the new user (replace with a strong secret or configure key-based login).
• mkdir -p creates the .ssh directory for SSH configuration in the user’s home directory.

Now, configure SSH key-based authentication for the new user by adding your public SSH key to the authorized_keys file. Replace the placeholder with your actual public key:

sudo sh -c "echo 'My-public-SSH-key' > /home/node_admin/.ssh/authorized_keys"

This command creates the authorized_keys file under /home/node_admin/.ssh/ and writes your public key into it, allowing secure, passwordless login as the node_admin user.

Ethereum Preliminaries

Operating a fully functional Ethereum node requires the coordinated operation of two key software components:

1. Execution Client (EL) – responsible for processing transactions and maintaining the Ethereum state.

2. Consensus Client (CL) – responsible for reaching consensus with the rest of the network through the Ethereum proof-of-stake protocol.

These two components must run in tandem and communicate securely to maintain synchronization with the Ethereum mainnet.

The Ethereum ecosystem supports multiple client implementations, each developed independently but compliant with the Ethereum specification. The most widely used options include:

Execution Clients (EL):

• Geth
• Nethermind
• Reth
• Besu
• Erigon

Consensus Clients (CL):

• Lighthouse
• Prysm
• Teku
• Nimbus
• Lodestar

For this guide, we will use the following combination:

● Execution Client: Nethermind

● Consensus Client: Lighthouse

Installing Nethermind (Execution Client)

Step 1: Add the Nethermind APT Repository

To install Nethermind via APT, begin by adding the official repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nethermindeth/nethermind

If the above command is not found, install the required tools first:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

Step 2: Update the Package Index

Refresh your package list to include packages from the newly added repository:

sudo apt-get update

⚠️This may take a few minutes depending on your system and network speed.

Step 3: Install Nethermind

Now install the Nethermind binary:

sudo apt-get install nethermind -y

Installing Lighthouse (Consensus Client)

Step 1: Download the Latest Stable Release

Navigate to the Lighthouse GitHub Releases page and locate the latest stable release.

As of September 29, 2025, version 8.0.0 is marked as a Pre-release, so we will use the stable version 7.1.0.

Use the following curl command to download the Lighthouse client binary archive:

curl -LO https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases/download/v7.1.0/lighthouse-v7.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Step 2: Extract the Archive

Once downloaded, extract the archive:

tar -xvf lighthouse-v7.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz

This will place the lighthouse binary in your current directory.

Step 3: Verify and Move the Binary

Test the binary to ensure it is working:

./lighthouse –version

Move it to a directory included in your system’s $PATH for global access:

sudo cp lighthouse /usr/bin

Create the JWT Secret File

A shared JWT secret is required for secure authenticated communication between the execution and consensus clients.

Step 1: Create a Secrets Directory

sudo mkdir -p /secrets

Step 2: Generate the JWT Token

openssl rand -hex 32 | tr -d "\n" | sudo tee /secrets/jwt.hex > /dev/null

You should now have the file /secrets/jwt.hex containing a 32-byte hexadecimal secret.

Using screen for Session Persistence

When running on a remote server (such as an OVH cloud instance), any disconnection from your SSH session will terminate running processes unless they are managed through tools like screen.

Check if screen is installed:

screen –version

If not installed:

sudo apt-get install screen

Setting Ownership for /mnt/chaindata

When running Ethereum clients (Nethermind and Lighthouse), it’s essential that the user executing the commands has the necessary access to the data directory. To avoid permission issues and maintain security, you should assign ownership of the previously mounted directory to your current user.

sudo chown $USER:$USER /mnt/chaindata

This command sets the user and group ownership of /mnt/chaindata to the currently logged-in user. It ensures that you (and your Ethereum clients, if run under your user account) have full access to read, write, and modify files in this directory.

Now we are ready to launch both the execution and consensus clients in separate screen sessions for persistent background operation.

Launching Nethermind (Execution Client)

Step 1: Create a Screen Session

screen -S nethermind

Step 2: Run Nethermind

nethermind -c mainnet \ 
--data-dir /mnt/chaindata/nethermind \ 
--JsonRpc.Enabled true \ 
--HealthChecks.Enabled true \ 
--HealthChecks.UIEnabled true \ 
--JsonRpc.EngineHost=127.0.0.1 \ 
--JsonRpc.EnginePort=8551 \ 
--JsonRpc.JwtSecretFile=/secrets/jwt.hex 

You should see logs indicating the client is running. Eventually, the message:

Waiting for Forkchoice message from Consensus Layer

will appear, indicating the execution client is waiting to pair with the consensus client.

Step 3: Detach the Session

Press: Ctrl-a then d to detach from the session and return to the main shell.

Step 4: List Active Sessions (Optional)

screen -ls

To reattach later:

screen -r nethermind

Launching Lighthouse (Consensus Client)

Step 1: Create a New Screen Session

screen -S lighthouse

Step 2: Run Lighthouse Beacon Node

lighthouse bn \ 
--network mainnet \ 
--execution-endpoint http://127.0.0.1:8551 \ 
--execution-jwt /secrets/jwt.hex \ 
--checkpoint-sync-url https://mainnet.checkpoint.sigp.io \ 
--http \ 
--datadir /mnt/chaindata/lighthouse

After some initial setup, Lighthouse should begin syncing with the network.

Step 3: Detach the Session

Use the same key combination: Ctrl-a then d.

Verifying Synchronization Between EL and CL

At this stage, both the execution client (Nethermind) and the consensus client (Lighthouse) should be running in separate screen sessions. To confirm that they are properly connected and synchronization is underway, reattach to the Nethermind session and inspect the logs.

Step 1: Reattach to the Nethermind Session

screen -r nethermind

This command brings you back into the Nethermind screen session, where you can observe real-time logs.

Step 2: Check for Communication Messages

If Lighthouse is running and connected correctly, Nethermind’s logs should no longer display:

Waiting for Forkchoice message from Consensus Layer

Instead, you should see logs indicating that the Engine API communication has been established and blocks are being processed. Look for messages like:

Received ForkChoice: ...
Syncing...

These logs confirm that Nethermind is receiving block proposals and fork choice updates from Lighthouse and that the node is syncing correctly with the Ethereum mainnet.

Conclusion

And you’re done! You have deployed a fully functional Ethereum node on OVHcloud.

While this guide focused on the technical deployment, it is important to complement the setup with proper security hardening, monitoring, and maintenance practices to ensure long-term stability. With the foundation now in place, you can extend the node’s functionality, integrate it into larger infrastructures, or use it as a base for research, development, and staking operations.

This is the first guide in our mini-series and will shortly be followed by a tutorial on how to deploy an Ethereum node on a bare metal server and monitor it in real-time. Stay tuned for more.

In the cloud industry, especially in Canada, growth often comes with its own set of challenges. Our Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Value-Added Resellers (VARs), and System Integrators (SIs) are constantly balancing the pressures of staying competitive, embracing rapid innovation, and adhering to the core values that matter most to their clients. I’ve seen how complex this can be, but I’ve also seen how the right partnerships can transform those challenges into meaningful opportunities.

When Growth Meets Sovereignty

One of the key challenges many of our Canadian partners faced was the concern around data residency. Clients were often hesitant to embrace cloud solutions because they didn’t have the assurance that their data would remain within Canadian borders. It’s a valid concern, one that we, at OVHcloud, were ready to address.

By leveraging OVHcloud’s fully Canadian infrastructure, we didn’t just provide a technical solution; we offered peace of mind. This allowed our partners to confidently present cloud solutions that complied with rigorous Canadian data residency laws, empowering their clients to modernize their IT environments without fear of compromising on sovereignty.

What makes this so exciting for me is seeing how this challenge became a catalyst for growth. Our partners now deliver secure, compliant, and high-performance cloud services, transforming regulatory constraints into a foundation for trust and expansion.

This, to me, is the essence of what we do: turning challenges into opportunities, especially when it comes to sovereignty. It’s the kind of problem-solving that drives us and fuels our growth in the Canadian market.

Sustainability as a Business Differentiator

Another trend I’ve observed, particularly from our partners in Canada, is the rising importance of IT sustainability. Clients are asking questions like, “How green is your cloud?” The cloud is no longer just about performance and cost-efficiency—it’s about responsibility.

Thanks to OVHcloud’s water-cooling technology in our data centers, which drastically reduces energy consumption, our partners can now confidently assure their clients that their cloud services aren’t just reliable and affordable, they’re also environmentally conscious. This focus on sustainability has become a game-changer in conversations with clients, and it’s a great way for our partners to stand out from the competition.

As someone who’s passionate about both technology and sustainability, I find this aspect of our work incredibly rewarding. It’s about making the cloud more than just a tool—it’s about making it a responsible and ethical choice.

The Human Touch: Building Real Relationships

One of the things our Canadian partners tell me most often is what truly sets OVHcloud apart: it’s the people behind the technology. Yes, our infrastructure is top-notch, but it’s the personalized relationships that make all the difference.

As a partner manager, I get to be there for our partners—not just through generic portals or automated systems, but as a real person they can reach out to. Whether it’s for strategic advice, troubleshooting, or simply brainstorming new ideas, having that human connection has made all the difference in building trust and navigating the complexities of the market.

Trust is the foundation of any strong partnership, and it’s been amazing to see how our personalized approach has helped our Canadian partners grow. After all, it’s not just about what we do; it’s about how we do it—together.

A New Chapter for Cloud in Canada

Looking at the partner landscape in Canada today, I see much more than just numbers or market share. I see stories of transformation—of small MSPs evolving into national players, of integrators unlocking new opportunities for their clients, of businesses turning regulatory hurdles into competitive advantages.

At OVHcloud, we’ve always believed that partnership is about more than just transactions. It’s about building something together, step by step, project by project, challenge by challenge. And here in Canada, our journey is only just beginning.

The stories I’ve shared are just a glimpse of how human-scale partnerships can help turn challenges into growth, sustainability into opportunity, and technology into trust.

If you’re an MSP, VAR, or SI in Canada looking to expand your offerings, strengthen your client relationships, and leverage cloud solutions that are secure, sovereign, and sustainable, I invite you to join us. Let’s write the next Canadian cloud success story—together.

That’s why we’re so excited to announce our new partnership with Epitech 🥳, a school renowned for helping talented students learn.

From Classroom to Career

This new partnership is our promise to help students succeed, giving them the tools and experience they need to build great things. Here’s how we’ll be helping the Epitech community:

• Fun Hackathons: We’ll host hackathons where students can team up to solve real problems and be creative, turning good ideas into actual projects. 💡

• Great Internships: Epitech students can come work with our teams. Our internships offer a real chance to use what they’ve learned in class and to get a solid start on their careers.

• Hands-on Training: Our experts will run special workshops for students. They’ll learn the latest tech skills directly from the people who use them firsthand every day.

• Help for Students: New ideas often start with research. We’ll give Epitech’s students special access to public cloud services on beneficial terms. We want to help them turn their ideas into reality, faster! 🔬

This Is Just the Beginning

Our partnership with Epitech is a huge first step for us, but we’re just getting started.
OVHcloud aims to team up with more schools in the future, as we believe it’s imperative for companies and schools to work together! By supporting students everywhere, we help them become the strong leaders of tomorrow.

Schools Are Our Future

We’re deeply convinced of this simple truth: the future is in the hands of today’s students.

In an ever-evolving landscape, building a sustainable and innovative future depends on our ability to develop and master our own technologies.  And in today’s geopolitical context, where questions of digital independence and data control are more critical than ever, giving young talents the means to innovate locally is not just an opportunity — it’s a necessity.

After all, technical sovereignty doesn’t start in boardrooms, it starts in schools. By providing students with the skills, tools, and mindsets to design and control their own digital solutions, we are actively contributing to a stronger, more resilient ecosystem. By investing in education, we’re investing in our future – ensuring that the next generation of engineers, developers, and visionaries have the opportunity to build a better, more technologically advanced world. In this world of tomorrow, Europe and its partners remain free, innovative, and sovereign.

To everyone at Epitech, we can’t wait to start working with you. Let’s build the future together!

Today we feature a discussion between our Global Strategy Leader for the OVHcloud Partner Program, David Devine, and Yethrib Hilmi, Head of Development at our UK partner The Genius Group.

Hi there, great to catch up. Can you both introduce yourselves briefly?

Yethrib: I’m Yethrib Hilmi, Head of Development at Claimtech, part of The Genius Group. We are the UK’s largest agency for creating and onboarding signed clients, having successfully onboarded over 7 million clients for major UK companies—driving billions in revenue for the legal, financial, and insurance sectors.

Our expertise spans AML, KYC, soft search technology, biometric authentication, and e-signature management, making us the go-to digital partner for businesses that require compliant, high-volume, and frictionless client onboarding solutions.

Uptime, stability, and security are at the core of what we do—which is why we rely on OVHcloud to power our infrastructure. With OVHcloud’s scalable and secure cloud solutions, we can process millions of transactions while maintaining unmatched reliability and performance for our clients. We work alongside industry giants such as Experian, and our reputation for cutting-edge technology, compliance automation, and seamless client acquisition has earned us multiple industry-leading awards, including the Website Traffic Generation Specialists of the Year, and Client Service Excellence Award winners 2025.

David: I’m David Devine, Global Strategy Leader for the OVHcloud Partner Program. I work closely on the strategy for our program across the world, making sure that we’re supporting all of our partners in the best possible way.

We enable partners to add value to their customers, using our exceptional price/performance ratio, with predictable costs and open source technology, all built upon our sustainable and sovereign cloud products.

What’s it been like working with OVHcloud?

Yethrib: Our experience of partnering with OVHcloud has been outstanding. Firstly, their programme is incredibly welcoming and supportive. We’ve consistently found that it provides invaluable assistance in meeting our dedicated server needs. The partnership team keeps us updated on their latest offerings, ensuring we can continue to deliver cutting-edge technology and exceptional value to our clients.

David: We’re really happy to hear that, thanks Yethrib. We’ve worked hard to make sure our program provides benefits for all of our partners, but we also make sure that we support them on an individual basis. That can mean sales support, product advice, technical workshops, guidance on design or even the future product roadmap and how that sits with the partner portfolio.

What impact has OVHcloud made on your business?

Yethrib: The reliability of OVHcloud’s uptime SLAs has been a game changer to our business, directly contributing to a 500% increase in turnover across our group activities over the past year. Their strong uptime record demonstrates their commitment and dedication to providing exemplary customer service.

David: We’ve invested heavily in support staff, not to mention our ongoing resiliency program across our datacentres, so it’s great to hear the positive and direct impact this is delivering to our partners and customers. In particular, our Erith datacentre saw a number of updates and upgrades last year to ensure that it was at the top of its game.

And what’s your experience of the partner programme been like?

Yethrib: The dedicated partner programme has enabled us to establish a strong infrastructure and framework supporting scalable and efficient business operations, ensuring we can deliver both optimal client results and training programmes where necessary. Partnering with OVHcloud empowers us to confidently meet the demands of our business and clients.

David: That’s definitely our aim, and we try to make sure that we’re regularly spending time with our partners, listening to their needs and planning how we can support their next growth ambitions. Working particularly closely with Yethrib and his team, we have utilised the training program to help empower knowledge. Ultimately, our job is to understand partner needs and support their growth, so having a close relationship is a must. A key focus of our ethos is to ensure we are accessible to our partners at all times, for example enabling partners to speak directly with our technical team to help align a customer’s requirement with the correct solution design, so that it’s right first time.  We need to know what’s driving their business so we can work out how best to support them – there’s no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach at OVHcloud!

Yethrib, David, thank you, it’s been a pleasure!

But before you grab your axe and scramble for the nearest beanstalk, it’s important to survey the scene and make sure that you’re heading for a cash cow rather than being left holding a handful of dry beans.

Metaphors duly stretched, today we take a closer look at the opportunities this presents for the channel with Gilles Closset, our global AI ecosystem leader. Gilles is instrumental in helping our partner community distinguish between the hype and the practical opportunities AI offers and brings a wealth of customer insights.

Gilles, thanks for joining us – let’s kick off.

Q1. Which industries are using AI the most: who are the early adopters? Why are they using it and what business outcomes are they looking for?  

GC: Healthcare is one sector where we’re seeing huge growth, largely because of AI’s potential to help people live longer, take better care of them and reduce administrative burdens. A lot of AI in healthcare doesn’t depend on GenAI, and we see a lot of startups in this area, mostly based more on the traditional machine learning industry.

We also see significant AI uptake in Manufacturing, mostly in the optimisation of production processes. With its heritage in Kaizen and Six Sigma, manufacturing has always seen a strong appetite in this area. The sector is also starting to embrace predictive maintenance, using both digital twin and machine learning technology.

Thirdly,the Retail industry has embraced a mix of GenAI and machine learning to improve customer interactions using chatbots, sales optimisation and hyper-personalisation. AI is allowing every brand to offer the kind of personalised experience that was previously restricted to luxury brands; it has the power to absorb a lot of data points about customers and provide a far more customised experience across the areas of both sales and customer support.

Finally, we see a great amount of AI adoption in the Financial sector, particularly in the areas of fraud detection and personalised engagement. The financial sector has historically been enthusiastic about machine learning for improving KYC (Know Your Customer) processes, and AI can really accelerate this.

Q2. What are other customers really looking for when it comes to AI? What are they adopting, and what are the best opportunities for VARs and MSPs in AI today?

GC: We see a lot of potential from AI to improve efficiency and personalisation, draw together data from different customer journeys and integrate it. As I said above, customers are increasingly expecting a highly integrated approach when it comes to their relationship with brands – and AI enables everyone to do this.

We also hear a lot of questions from customers about data handling; from ethical principles to cloud audits and hands-on management, there’s a lot of opportunity for partners to support customers. It’s still early days in terms of adoption, but this is a clear opportunity for partners to get ahead, show differentiation and stand out.

Q3. Turning to the market main challenges, what themes are customers struggling with the most and need help from VARs and MSPs to support them?

GC: One major challenge we’ve seen is to go beyond a POC – we see a lot of exploratory initiatives, but then they don’t scale!

At the same time, data quality is a challenge. A lot of organisations have legacy systems that weren’t designed to work with AI, so there’s a real need for modernisation. IDC’s latest findings predict an unprecedented YoY growth of 97% in AI compute and storage hardware infrastructure to support this adoption. This area already is a vast area of investment, currently valued at $47.4b. We see a lot of projects to update and extract data from old systems, and partners who can support with this are in a position to significantly drive their customers forward in terms of AI maturity.

Finally – and this is linked to the previous point: we are seeing a big talent gap. AI is a new industry, so organisations are still developing their skills. There are two main ways to address this: you can either help a customer to address the gap directly and deliver workshops and training, or you can provide the end customer with people to do the work on a temporary basis.

All of this requires a transformation plan and can be daunting, but it does represent a major opportunity to add value. Furthermore, these projects will usually start with data literacy, making sure people understand the potential of AI, getting buy-in, and then you’re off!

Q4. What are your top tips for partners starting to explore the possibilities of AI for their customers?

GC:

1: Mind the skills gap: Upskill your own team or help to skill up the customer.

2: Know how to tackle topics around data quality and governance. Good data is the foundation for all good AI – and as the old saying goes, Garbage In, Garbage Out.

3: Use UK or European organisations where you can. We see lots of feedback from partners who are trying to differentiate from the hyperscalers in terms of price, data protection (especially around sovereignty and vulnerability to extra-territorial laws) and working with a European player will make this much easier.

Gilles, many thanks for your time, and very useful insights. From what we’ve heard, AI certainly offers prospects of gargantuan proportions and, like many new rapid-growth market cycles, once you’ve separated the wheat from the chaff (or beans from the stalks), climbing up to the giant’s AI tech lair is a significant opportunity for partners. As always, it’s important to listen to what customers are doing and understand their broader strategic and technical landscape, but in the long term, embracing the AI opportunity can uncover new business treasures you never knew existed!

A New Era of Digital Workplaces thanks to a shared vision and values

Both companies share a vision of empowering customers with the freedom to build tailored cloud environments, ensuring compatibility with any technology and architecture, both on hybrid or multicloud environments. A key focus of this partnership is to offer competitive, transparent pricing, bringing innovative technologies within reach of all types of businesses. Companies of all sizes can now access technologies that drive efficiency and innovation to the digital workplace world, which is a large step further in the path of democratization of technology.

OVHcloud and Virtual Cable prioritize data sovereignty and security, ensuring that their solutions meet the highest standards of data protection and compliance. With a Local Zone for Public Cloud services in Spain, the partnership addresses critical customer requirements, including lower latency and adherence to national and European regulations.

This alliance marks a significant step forward in providing businesses with advanced digital workplace solutions thanks to the combined expertise of Virtual Cable and OVHcloud,

Reasons why your company needs a Desktop Virtualization Solution

The integration of Virtual Cable’s UDS Enterprise with OVHcloud’s robust infrastructure offers numerous benefits to your company, let´s see some of them:

1. Enhanced Security: Virtual desktops isolate user environments, reducing the risk of malware and data breaches. Centralized management ensures consistent security updates and policies across all devices.
2. Cost Efficiency: Desktop virtualization reduces the need for expensive hardware and maintenance, as computing resources are managed in the cloud. This leads to lower upfront costs and predictable ongoing expenses.
3. Flexibility and Scalability: Businesses can easily scale their virtual desktop environments up or down based on demand, providing the agility to respond to changing workforce needs without significant capital investment.
4. Remote Accessibility: Employees can access their virtual desktops from anywhere, using any device with internet connectivity. This improves productivity and supports remote work and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies.
5. Simplified IT Management: Centralized management of virtual desktops streamlines IT operations, allowing for quick deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting, reducing the burden on IT staff.
6. Business Continuity: Virtual desktops support business continuity planning by enabling quick recovery from disasters or disruptions, ensuring that employees can continue working without significant downtime.

Trusted and reliability partnership that offers added value VDI solutions 

Cristina Ortiz, Partner Program Manager at OVHcloud, underscored this commitment: “Our relationship with our partners is primarily based on communication, proximity, and above all, collaboration. We rely on the channel to add that layer of added value that the customer needs, and in Virtual Cable, we have found a suite of high-quality workplace virtualization solutions that provide great value to our customers, ensuring their data remains secure and sovereign.”

Fernando Feliu, Executive Managing Director of Virtual Cable, added: “Partnering with a hyperscaler like OVHcloud, which has a Local Zone for Public Cloud Services in Spain, meets our customers’ needs for lower latency and compliance with local regulations. This alliance enhances our cloud offerings, providing greater flexibility and choice for our partners and customers while ensuring the highest levels of data protection.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, adopting a cloud VDI solution has become an essential pillar for modern enterprises. This technology provides multiple critical benefits that can transform how organizations operate and manage their digital resources.

The collaboration between Virtual Cable and OVHcloud represents a significant advancement in the realm of cloud digital workplace solutions. This partnership not only emphasizes the importance of delivering secure, open, and cost-effective solutions but also aligns with a shared vision of innovation, sovereignty, and customer empowerment offering a robust and reliable solution for the challenges of the modern digital workplace environment.

About Virtual Cable

Virtual Cable is a company specialized in the digital transformation of the workplace. The company develops, supports, and markets UDS Enterprise, software for desktop virtualization, applications, and remote access to physical devices. Its team of experts has designed VDI solutions tailored to each sector to provide a unique user experience fully adapted to each user’s needs. The professionals at Virtual Cable have over 30 years of experience in IT and software development and more than 15 years in virtualization technologies. Every day, millions of Windows and Linux virtual desktops are deployed with UDS Enterprise worldwide.

For more information:

Social Media:

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OVHcloud’s IaaS (Infraestructure as a Service) services allow us to hire dedicated servers (bare metal) for rent that we can have at our disposal in a matter of minutes. There is a wide range of options (rise, advance, storage, scale, high quality, etc.) from which we can choose according to our needs.

In this article we will see how we can use these dedicated servers to create Proxmox VE Ceph Clusters with the same functionalities that we would have if we used proprietary servers in our facilities (on premises). In addition, we will see how OVHcloud services allow us to create a very complete DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) to achieve maximum resilience for our data

OVHCloud – Dedicated Servers

Ceph Proxmox VE Cluster

A cluster of Proxmox VE servers combined with a Ceph distributed storage system allows you to create a highly available, load-balanced, horizontally scalable, hyperconverged virtualization infrastructure with ease.

Let’s first look at some concepts to fully understand what a Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster is.

What is a cluster?

A cluster in computing refers to a group of interconnected computers or nodes that function together as if they were a single entity. Clusters are used to improve the availability, performance, and scalability of applications and services. There are different types of clusters, but in general they share the objective of providing greater processing capacity and redundancy.

What is Ceph?

Ceph is a distributed storage system designed to provide object, block, and file storage in a single unified cluster. . Proxmox can use Ceph as a virtual machines storege.

What is a Proxmox VE Ceph cluster?

It is three or more servers forming part of a Proxmox cluster and using Ceph as a distributed storage system, all managed from the Proxmox web interface, thanks to which we achieve a hyperconverged virtualization infrastructure.

What is hyperconvergence?

A hyperconverged virtualization infrastructure is an integrated system that combines compute, storage, and networking in a single environment. This simplifies management, improves efficiency, and enables easy scalability, making it easy to create and manage virtual machines in a single cluster.

Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster

By means of the OVHcloud dedicated server service we can create a Proxmox VE Ceph cluster with three or more nodes in the same way that we would do if we acquired our own servers to create the cluster in our facilities, but with the versatility and advantages that come with using rental servers instead of proprietary hardware, among which we can mention:

• Abstraction of the hardware layer since any breakdown will be solved by OVHcloud and, if necessary, they will replace the damaged parts or even the entire server.
• We forget about hardware obsolescence. After a few years we will be able to add new servers with the latest technologies to our cluster and eliminate the old ones in a completely transparent way for the user of the virtualization environment, without any interruption of service.
• Easily add more nodes to our virtualization cluster to increase your computing power. In a matter of minutes we can have new servers that we can add to our cluster.

The large number of dedicated server options that OVHcloud makes available to its clients allows us to create Proxmox VE Ceph Clusters for practically any client. We can use different CPUs depending on our needs, large amounts of RAM, large NVMe disks, dedicated 25Gbps networks for Ceph communication, the vRACK service to connect our servers, dedicated IP ranges, etc. All this allows us to cover practically the needs of any client.

OVHCloud – A2-Scale Servers

DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan)

A DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) is crucial to maintaining business operations in the event of disasters, guaranteeing the continuity and protection of essential data. It is very important to have a good DRP to ensure the resilience of the data.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Disaster Recovery Plan in IT refers to a set of strategies, policies and procedures that an organization implements to restore its critical systems and data after a catastrophic event or disaster that causes significant disruptions to operations. normal.que cause interrupciones significativas en las operaciones normales.

These events may include:

• Natural disasters: Such as earthquakes, floods, storms, etc.
• Man-made disasters: Such as cyber attacks, infrastructure failures, acts of vandalism, etc.

The goal of the Disaster Recovery Plan is to minimize downtime and ensure business continuity, allowing the organization to recover quickly after a disaster.

DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan)

Below we will list several options, taking into account that our DRP may have some of these or even a combination of all of them, depending on the level of data resilience desired. Option 1: Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster distributed in OVHcloud 3-AZ region Our partner OVHcloud has a service called 3-AZ region thanks to which we can distribute a Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster made up of dedicated servers (bare metal) between three different data centers separated by a few tens of kilometers. These data centers that make up the 3-AZ region are interconnected through redundant fibers with minimal latency, thanks to which we can set up a Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster distributed within said region. This provides us with great resilience of the data against incidents located in one of the data centers since our virtualization service will not be affected by it.

OVHcloud – 3-AZ Region

Option 2: Proxmox Backup Server with frequent replication Make use of a Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) or by means of our PBS Online service in a data center (even a different country or continent) where you have a backup copy of all virtual machines, maintaining a history of various versions over time depending on the space available for copies. For those virtual machines that are more critical, you can even make more frequent copies (for example, every hour) so that if you have to activate the DRP, the data loss is as little as possible. This option can be implemented using the PBS Online service, the OVHcloud IaaS service to rent a dedicated server on which to install the PBS or any other cloud service or even own facilities in which to locate the PBS.

Option 3: Ceph Replicación Create a Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster identical to the production one in a data center geographically separated from the main cluster and activate Ceph replication between both clusters. This is the option with the least data loss if we compare it with option 2, but much more expensive since we have to have a cluster equal to the main cluster that we will only activate in case of disaster. This option can be implemented using the OVHcloud IaaS service, given that they have data centers distributed in several countries and continents. Therefore, it would be viable to host the main cluster in a data center and the replication cluster located in another country. It can also be implemented using different cloud providers and also on the customer’s premises if he has geographically separated data centers.

Conclusion

As we have seen throughout this article, we can create a hyperconverged virtualization infrastructure with great data resilience using the Proxmox VE hypervisor and dedicated OVHCloud servers. A Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster with three or more nodes located in a 3-AZ region of OVHcloud, in combination with a PBS (Proxmox Backup Server) hosted in a different data center and country is a highly available solution, with high scalability and with great data resilience. If we also add an identical cluster in another data center outside the 3-AZ region with real-time Ceph replication, we can have a DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) that allows rapid disaster recovery.

Since the dawn of cloud, customers have spent hours, days and weeks deciding which cloud environment is right for them and their IT estate. The channel has been an intrinsic part of this evaluation, with partners supporting their customers and helping them make the right decision for their own specific needs.  

Today, cloud is not only a mature technology, but it’s an interoperable one as well. Organisations use multiple clouds for different applications and workloads, selecting best of breed vendors to fit their needs. This multi-cloud approach is fast becoming the norm. We recently surveyed over 500 technology buyers from the UK, and almost two thirds (62%) are actively using multi-cloud environments today. A further 23% are either transitioning to multi-cloud or exploring the possibility of multi-cloud in future.  

Although there are a number of organisations that do use a single cloud provider, a staggering 65% of organisations say that their use of multi-cloud will increase in the next two years, representing a huge opportunity for the channel. Mixing and matching workloads to the right cloud environments can bring benefits, but also brings more complexity, with integration into other applications and a greater number of endpoints to secure. Around a third (31%) of IT decision makers said that they were concerned about securing their multi-cloud environments, and 27% understood that multi-cloud would make their estates considerably more complex. 

So what does this mean for the channel? How do channel partners adapt to address these market dynamics? Partners can provide invaluable experience and value to customers, helping to tame their multi-cloud environments. By getting to know a customer’s infrastructure, helping them to choose the right vendors and giving good consultancy, channel partners can not only help customers transition to multi-cloud effectively, but build both long-term relationships and long-term margin, in particular by adding complementary support and consultancy services.  

We’re at a key inflection point and the time to act is now. Three quarters of respondents stated they need more support and expertise, with only a quarter of organisations see multi-cloud as ‘plain sailing’. Around half (46%) are ‘getting there, one step at a time’, with a fifth (20%) admitting that if multi-cloud was a relationship status, theirs would be ‘it’s complicated’.  

But whether your customer is a mature multi-cloud user or just starting down the road, it’s almost certainly a journey that they won’t diverge from, and as their complexity grows, so will a desire to seek help from channel partners. The benefits of multi-cloud are well understood: in our poll of over five hundred customers, only one believed that there were no benefits to multi-cloud. Everyone else knew that using the right cloud for the job could give you better flexibility, better portability, lower risk and better cost-effectiveness.  

And with those kinds of benefits on offer, it’s quite clear that we’re going to be living in a multi-cloud future, and the channel opportunities are there for the taking.  

What is the CLOUD Act?

The CLOUD Act or the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, was enacted in the United States in 2018. Its primary purpose is to provide law enforcement agencies with enhanced access to electronic data held by American technology companies. Even if the data is stored outside the United States. The CLOUD Act also enables reciprocal data-sharing agreements between the U.S. and other foreign governments. While the CLOUD Act has implications for data stored in the cloud, it primarily affects cloud providers subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

What are the Implications for our Partners’ Customers in terms of Privacy and Data Security?

1. Access to Data: Under the CLOUD Act, U.S. law enforcement agencies can compel cloud providers to disclose customer data, regardless of its physical location. As a Managed Service Provider or Reseller, this would mean that even if your client’s data is stored in a server outside the U.S., it may still be subject to access by U.S. authorities if your cloud provider is subject to the CLOUD Act. This raises concerns about potential infringement on individual privacy rights and the ability to maintain control over personal and sensitive information.

2. Data Security: When your client’s data, or yours for that matter, is stored with a cloud provider bound by the CLOUD Act, it is subject to additional risks in terms of security. The CLOUD Act requires cloud providers to provide access to data, potentially introducing vulnerabilities that malicious actors could exploit. This highlights the importance of robust security measures to protect data stored in the cloud, including encryption, access controls, and regular audits of the provider’s security practices.

3. International Data Protection: The CLOUD Act’s provisions for international data-sharing agreements raise questions about how data is protected and governed in different jurisdictions. Data stored with a cloud provider bound by the CLOUD Act may be subject to different legal standards and regulations, depending on the country involved. This can complicate compliance with data protection laws, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which imposes stringent requirements on the handling of personal data.

How can you Mitigate this Risk for your Clients?

As a Reseller, System Integrator, Managed Service Provider or adviser, your client’s data and its security is at heart of your offering. The responsible choosing of a cloud provider is therefore imperative in order to reduce this risk. More concretely, you do it by choosing cloud providers that are transparent about their data handling practices, by assessing their jurisdiction and by understanding the legal frameworks they operate under.

At OVHcloud in Europe, we are CLOUD Act free.

Full Compliance with European Regulations, Freedoms and Fundamental Right

Organizationally, the OVHcloud Group is a European group in which European commercial entities fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of European Union member states, or states that have been subject to a European Commission adequacy decision. These entities are controlled by OVH Groupe, a company governed by French law, with no dependency links to any entity or organisation subject to the jurisdiction of states that do not provide an adequate level of data protection.

Requests from non-EU authorities (governmental, administrative, judicial or other) may be made for the communication of a European user’s data hosted in a datacenter located within the European Union. In this case, OVHcloud systematically opposes to such requests. In accordance with EU regulations; this is the  this is the case for example when they are not carried out in accordance with an international agreement — such as a treaty on mutual legal assistance in force between the requesting country and the Member State(s) of the European Union concerned.

Compliant with the Strictest Security Standards

The SecNumCloud Security Visa, obtained by OVHcloud in early 2021, plus the renewed SecNumCloud 3.2 gained in 2023 to accelerate OVHcloud strategy on its datacenters, give certified cloud service customers the assurance that they will choose solutions with a security and trust level verified by ANSSI (the French National Agency for Information Systems Security).  OVHcloud also obtained security labels in other countries (for example G-cloud in the UK and AgiD in Italy), and provides its cloud services to the administrations of several European Union state members, as well as European Commission institutions.

As the use of cloud storage becomes increasingly prevalent, it is vital to understand the implications of entrusting your customer’s data to cloud providers subject to the CLOUD Act. Balancing the benefits of cloud computing with the potential risks to privacy and data security requires informed decision-making and proactive measures. At OVHcloud, the data protection of our clients and of our partner’s clients is the core of our operation. By choosing providers wisely, implementing robust security measures, and staying vigilant about data protection, clients and partners can navigate the cloud landscape while safeguarding their information in the face of evolving legal frameworks.

Get to know more about how Data Sovereignty and Trusted Cloud is critical for business: https://blog.ovhcloud.com/data-sovereignty-trusted-cloud-critical-business/

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, the channel plays a pivotal role in connecting providers with end-user companies. However, this crucial link encounters a myriad of challenges in its day-to-day operations. In this article, we delve into the intricate web of hurdles faced by the channel, ranging from pricing control and product knowledge to the human factor and the indispensable role of supplier support.

During conversations with our partners and with other members of the channel that are not yet part of our ecosystem, we have identified several key challenges where we can help to address. Also in this article we will try to review them in a simple way and explain how OVHcloud supports the partner to solve them. Lets go one by one:

1. Pricing Control and Predictability

One of the key challenges faced by partners is maintaining control and predictability in pricing. Fluctuations in pricing can lead to market uncertainty, impacting profit margins and creating an environment of distrust among cloud business.

OVHcloud offers competitive pricing, but it’s more important for the channel to know that these prices are entirely predictable, that there is no hidden cost, and that it can make a correct and reliable estimate of what it should charge its customers at the end of each month. OVHcloud, unlike other cloud providers, does not include any traffic costs, for calls to databases or the use of its APIs, nor for data retention.

2. Product Knowledge and Training

In a fast-paced tech environment, staying abreast of the latest products and innovations is a constant challenge for partners. Adequate product knowledge is not only essential for successful sales but also for providing valuable insights to customers. The lack of comprehensive training programs or the high cost that some cloud providers apply to their certifications can hinder the channel’s ability to effectively communicate the features and benefits of the products they distribute.

At OVHcloud, we believe that access to information and training is a right for the partner and that is why we offer a completely free program that includes online and face-to-face training on both about products and tactics that help to sell. Access to continuous training, including trial and testing enviroments from OVHcloud emerges as a cornerstone in the learning process, providing partners with a hands-on understanding that transcends theoretical knowledge.

By facilitating hands-on experiences, OVHcloud not only contribute to partner education but also empower them to make informed, confident decisions in recommending and implementing technology solutions for their clients which becomes crucial for staying competitive and delivering effective sales and superior customer service.

3. The Human Factor

Many partners tell us about the difficulties they have working with other cloud providers to find a person who offers direct attention in their daily basics. They find themselves lost and unattended, which gives them a feeling of being alone in the difficult work of selling.

Nowadays, despite of the prevalence of digital communication, the human element remains a critical aspect of the channel. Building and maintaining relationships with all players in the ecosystem, including customers is essential for long-term success.

In OVHcloud the interpersonal skills of our channel team members become instrumental in understanding the unique needs of each partner and client and tailoring solutions accordingly. Proximity and human communication is another of the pillars on which our relationship with the ecosystem supports and directly impacts on the success of the business.

4. Diversifying offerings and interoperable solutions

In the ever-expanding tech ecosystem, the breadth of solutions offered by a distributor is paramount. Finding a supplier that provides an extensive portfolio of solutions is a critical challenge. However, the complexity doesn’t end there; the solutions must not only be diverse but also open and interoperable as interoperability is key in today’s interconnected and hybrid world.

For a partner this requires a careful selection of suppliers whose offerings adhere to open standards, allowing for smooth interoperability and avoiding the pitfalls of vendor lock-in.

OVHcloud is a strategic cloud provider for those partners that are looking to build flexible and scalable technology infrastructures as we offer open and entire catalogue of interoperable solutions for hybrid and multicloud enviroments. Our ability for that enhances the partner’s complete value proposition, makes their job easier and enables partner to address entire 360 projects.

5. The critical role of technical support in the pre-sales phase

Exploring the complex landscape of diverse technologies requires more than just product knowledge; it demands a deep understanding of use cases and the ability to optimizing technology for the clients’ unique needs. Having a knowledgeable representative available during the pre-sales process is not just beneficial; it is fundamental for partners to build their proposals.

Talking about product knowledge and human factors, OVHcloud includes in the channel team robust technical support that creates a distinct competitive advantage. A designated expert who can offer insights into use cases, advise on technology utilization, and assist in tailoring architectures becomes an invaluable resource for partners. This personalized support not only enhances the partner’s capabilities but also fosters stronger, more collaborative relationships between us and our partners.

6. Business generation and identifying commercial opportunities for succeed

Reaching new customers and identifying warm business opportunities is a challenge for the channel and the ability to generate business and detect new opportunities is crucial for growth and it’s not an easy task at all.

OVHcloud believes that generating business is not a issue that the partner must face alone. And this involves not only reacting to market trends but also proactively seeking out new potential customers and qualifying their needs in the whitespace. OVHcloud proactively seeks these business opportunities in customers who not only need our technology but the service of an expert partner to perform value projects. Our work finding strategic opportunities is key to our partners’ business and growth.

7. Security fears and overcoming hesitation in adopting cloud technologies

While the channel actively strives to usher in innovative and disruptive solutions, a formidable challenge emerges in persuading certain clients to embark on projects that are truly transformative. Despite being conscious of the benefits these initiatives bring to the digital transformation of their companies, clients often harbor concerns, with data security topping the list.

The fear of data breaches becomes a significant obstacle, especially when dealing with projects that involve complex migrations or the implementation of cutting-edge technologies. The challenge for distributors is not only to advocate for the advantages of these disruptive solutions but also to address and alleviate the legitimate security concerns raised by their clients.

As European Cloud Provider, OVHcloud guarantees the highest security in data processing, complying with the most demanding regulations. Leading global provider of Trusted Cloud our strong commitment with regulation, ethics, data localization and compliance with the highest security standards are the pillars that allow us together with our partners to build trust and assure clients that embracing cloud technologies, including AI solutions, can be done securely, marking a significant step towards achieving their digital transformation goals in all types of verticals, even those using highly sensitive data.

In conclusion, the challenges faced by the channel are multifaceted, requiring a holistic approach to overcome them. From pricing control and product knowledge to the human element and supplier support, each aspect plays a crucial role in the success of the channel. By addressing these challenges head-on and embracing a dynamic, customer-centric approach in collaboration with OVHcloud, partners can not only survive but thrive in the competitive cloud market.

To rap up, the level of support provided by OVHcloud plays a pivotal role in overcoming challenges within the channel. Beyond product training, we offer ongoing assistance, proactive communication, and strategic guidance. A robust support system that ensures the ecosystem can navigate unforeseen challenges, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and foster a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties.