IONOS Cloud — German hyperscaler alternative
IONOS Cloud is the enterprise cloud arm of IONOS SE, a publicly listed German hosting and cloud company headquartered in Karlsruhe and Montabaur, and part of the United Internet group. The Cloud Compute Engine product is positioned as a German alternative to the major hyperscalers for customers who require EU jurisdiction, German contracts and BSI-C5 attestation as part of their compliance posture. For ERP buyers, IONOS Cloud is relevant in scenarios where data sovereignty is a structural requirement that AWS, Azure or Google Cloud cannot fully address: regulated sectors (defence, public administration, parts of healthcare), customers with explicit U.S.-CLOUD-Act exposure concerns, and Mid-Market customers whose risk preference rules out U.S.-headquartered providers. The provider operates German data-centre infrastructure under German jurisdiction, with European data residency contractually guaranteed.
About
IONOS SE is one of Europe's largest hosting and cloud providers by customer numbers and is publicly listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. The parent group United Internet AG also operates GMX, Web.de and 1&1, which gives IONOS substantial in-house infrastructure capacity and capital strength. Cloud-relevant data centres operate in Frankfurt, Berlin and Karlsruhe in Germany, plus locations in Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. IONOS holds BSI-C5 attestation (the canonical German cloud-security baseline), ISO 27001 certification, the EU Cloud Code of Conduct, and selected sector-specific certifications relevant to public administration and regulated industries. The customer base is heterogeneous: classic hosting customers, mid-market businesses moving from on-premises to cloud, and a growing share of regulated-sector and public-administration customers attracted by the sovereignty positioning. IONOS Cloud is not a SaaS-ERP provider and does not host vendor-managed SAP or Dynamics 365 environments.
Service offering
The IONOS Cloud Compute Engine offering covers virtual machines with configurable CPU, memory and storage, block storage volumes, object storage compatible with the S3 API, network load balancers, virtual data centres for multi-tier network segregation, and managed Kubernetes. The platform exposes a programmable API and a web-based data-centre designer that makes infrastructure visible as a graph of virtual machines, volumes and network connections. SAP HANA certification is available for selected instance configurations, which makes the platform a feasible host for self-managed SAP S/4HANA on Private Cloud terms; the partner ecosystem for SAP-on-IONOS is smaller than for AWS or Azure but is growing. For non-SAP ERP scenarios, IONOS Cloud serves as a general-purpose IaaS where the customer or partner deploys the chosen ERP stack. Adjacent services include managed databases, container hosting and IONOS Object Storage.
DACH positioning
In the DACH cloud market IONOS Cloud is one of the two or three German-headquartered hyperscaler alternatives alongside Open Telekom Cloud and STACKIT (the Schwarz Group's sovereign-cloud offering). The provider competes against AWS, Azure and Google Cloud on sovereignty and contractual jurisdiction rather than on raw service catalogue size: the IONOS catalogue is substantially narrower than the hyperscalers and customers should evaluate fit on a service-by-service basis. GDPR compliance is the default, BSI-C5 is attested annually, and EU data residency is contractually guaranteed in the German regions. For GoBD-relevant tax data the provider supports the storage and snapshot capabilities GoBD-compliant operation requires. German-language sales, account management and 24/7 support are available throughout the customer lifecycle. SAP partner relationships are developing; for Microsoft Dynamics scenarios IONOS is not the relevant host (Dynamics SaaS runs on Microsoft Azure).
Strengths and selection considerations
Strengths to consider: German jurisdiction, BSI-C5 attestation, EU data residency, transparent pricing without hyperscaler-style egress surprises, German-language enterprise support, and a credible position as a hyperscaler alternative for sovereignty-sensitive customers. For Mid-Market customers whose compliance posture rules out U.S.-headquartered providers, IONOS Cloud is a serious option. Limitations to consider: the service catalogue is significantly narrower than AWS, Azure or Google Cloud — customers should not assume one-to-one feature parity, and complex workloads that rely on hyperscaler-specific managed services may not port cleanly. SAP-on-IONOS is feasible but the partner ecosystem is smaller, so finding implementation partners with deep IONOS experience may take effort. Hyperscale-specific patterns such as serverless functions, advanced AI services and global multi-region deployments are not the platform's strengths. For Dynamics 365 SaaS, IONOS is not the relevant host.
Related Topics
Vendor homepage of IONOS Cloud
Current view of the website https://www.ionos.de/cloud/
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is IONOS Cloud SAP-certified?
Yes, for selected instance configurations. IONOS Cloud has SAP HANA certification for specific VM types, which makes the platform feasible for self-managed SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud deployments. The certified configurations and the partner ecosystem for SAP-on-IONOS are smaller than for the major hyperscalers, so buyers should validate the specific scenario with their SAP partner.
How does IONOS Cloud compare with Open Telekom Cloud?
Both are German-headquartered hyperscaler alternatives with comparable sovereignty positioning. IONOS Cloud is built on its own infrastructure stack and emphasises a Compute-Engine model with a programmable virtual-data-centre designer. Open Telekom Cloud is OpenStack-based and operated by Deutsche Telekom. Choice between the two typically comes down to existing supplier relationships, specific service-catalogue requirements and pricing in the customer's scenario.
Can I run Microsoft Dynamics 365 on IONOS Cloud?
No. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Finance & Operations are SaaS products that Microsoft operates exclusively on its own Azure infrastructure. IONOS Cloud cannot host the vendor-managed Dynamics 365 service. For Dynamics 365 customers seeking German data residency, the Azure German regions (Germany West Central, Germany North) are the relevant choice.