Guide
Physical server, virtualised, private cloud, AWS or Azure: which to choose?
Six ways to host your company’s servers, compared on resilience to failures, real cost (including the hidden costs of the cloud) and data sovereignty.
Updated on 17 October 2026 · Figures are sourced at the bottom of the page; the assessments are IT CyberWall’s own.
The six options at a glance
Your software (accounting, sales management, email, shared files, website) runs on servers. Where and how they are hosted decides three things: what happens when something fails, how much you really pay, and which law applies to your data. Here are the six main options, without jargon.
- A single physical server. One machine, on your premises or rented from a host, that runs your software directly.
- Several physical servers linked in a network (“bare metal” cloud). Dedicated machines rented from a host and connected to each other; each has a role (files, database, website…).
- A virtualised physical server. A single machine split by a hypervisor into several virtual servers isolated from one another.
- Virtualised servers in cloud mode (private cloud). Several machines grouped in a cluster under the same hypervisor: if one fails, the virtual servers restart on another.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon’s public cloud: you rent virtual servers and services, billed by usage.
- Microsoft Azure. Microsoft’s public cloud, on the same pay-as-you-go principle.
The comparison in one table
IT CyberWall’s assessment for an SME or mid-sized company. “Variable” means the result depends mainly on the configuration chosen.
| Criterion | Single physical | Linked physical | Virtualised physical | Virtualised private cloud | AWS | Azure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| If a machine fails | Down until repaired | The affected role stops | All virtual servers stop | Restart on another machine | Variable (depends on the architecture you pay for) | Variable (depends on the architecture you pay for) |
| Adding capacity | Replace the machine | Add a machine | Within the machine’s limits | Add a machine to the cluster | Very fast | Very fast |
| Predictable bill | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No, billed by usage | No, billed by usage |
| Extra costs (traffic, disks) | Low | Low to none depending on the host | Low | Low to none depending on the host | Many, see below | Many, see below |
| Changing provider | Reinstallation | Reinstallation | Copy of the virtual servers | Copy of the virtual servers | Possible, proprietary services must be replaced | Possible, proprietary services must be replaced |
| Law applicable to the data | That of the chosen location and provider | That of the host | That of the chosen location and provider | That of the host | US law applies (CLOUD Act) | US law applies (CLOUD Act) |
| Skills required | Low | Medium | Medium | High (handled by the provider) | High, specific to AWS | High, specific to Azure |
Pros and cons
Single physical server
Pros: simple, fixed cost, you know where the machine is. Cons: a hardware failure stops everything; changing machine means reinstalling everything; capacity is often under-used.
Several linked physical servers
Pros: roles are separated, so a failure only stops part of the system; many European hosts include traffic. Cons: each machine remains a weak point for its role; more hardware to pay for and maintain.
Virtualised physical server
Pros: a well-used machine, servers isolated from one another, snapshots before every update, servers that can be moved. Cons: there is still only one physical machine: if it fails, all the virtual servers stop. An off-site backup is essential.
Virtualised servers in cloud mode (private cloud)
Pros: the benefits of virtualisation, plus automatic restart on another machine in the event of a failure; known capacity and cost; choice of country and host. Cons: at least two or three machines to finance; the architecture requires real expertise, which the provider must bring.
AWS and Azure
Pros: capacity available immediately, hundreds of ready-to-use services, global presence; ideal for highly variable workloads or an international project. Cons: hard-to-predict bills, many extra costs, dependence on proprietary services, subject to US law. Even large organisations struggle to control this spending: in the Flexera 2025 survey, 84% of respondents cite managing cloud spend as their top challenge, and cloud budgets are already exceeding their limits by 17% [6].
The real cost: the hidden costs of the cloud
On AWS and Azure, the advertised price of the server is only part of the bill. Here are the items people often discover afterwards.
Outbound traffic (data leaving the cloud)
Bringing data in is free; taking it out is charged: every page sent to a visitor, every file downloaded by an employee, every backup copied elsewhere.
| Outbound traffic to the internet | AWS (US and Europe) | Azure (Europe and North America) |
|---|---|---|
| Included each month | 100 GB [1] | 100 GB [2] |
| Up to 10 TB | $0.09 per GB [1] | $0.087 per GB [2] |
| Example: 1 TB outbound per month | ≈ $81 | ≈ $78 |
| Example: 10 TB outbound per month | ≈ $891 | ≈ $861 |
Examples calculated by IT CyberWall from the published price lists, excluding tax, with 1 TB = 1,000 GB and after deducting the 100 GB included.
By comparison, OVHcloud Scale dedicated servers include a guaranteed 1 Gbit/s public bandwidth, with unlimited, free inbound and outbound traffic (outside the Asia-Pacific region) [4], and Hetzner cloud servers in Europe include 20 TB of traffic per month, then about €1 per TB [5].
Internal traffic
At AWS, even traffic between two zones of the same regional centre is charged ($0.01 per GB in each direction), and a NAT gateway, often needed for servers to reach the internet, charges $0.045 per GB processed [1].
Disks and their performance (I/O)
An AWS gp3 disk costs $0.08 per GB per month. It includes 3,000 operations per second (IOPS) and 125 MiB/s; beyond that, each additional IOPS is charged $0.005 per month and additional throughput is charged separately. Snapshots (disk copies) cost $0.05 per GB per month [3]. Example: a 500 GB disk at 6,000 IOPS costs about $55 per month, before snapshots.
Hypervisor licences
This cost also exists outside the public cloud. After acquiring VMware, Broadcom dropped perpetual licences in favour of three-year subscriptions sold in bundles; members of CISPE (the association of European cloud providers) have reported increases of 800 to 1,500% [7]. By contrast, Proxmox VE is free software under the AGPLv3 licence [8]. Mastering the hypervisor means you can change vendor if the terms no longer suit you.
Sovereignty: which law applies to your data?
Server location is not enough: what matters is the provider’s nationality. The US CLOUD Act, signed on 23 March 2018, requires US providers to hand over, on lawful request, data in their possession or under their control, whether it is located in the United States or elsewhere [9]. AWS and Azure are subject to it, including for servers installed in Europe.
On 15 January 2026, AWS opened the “AWS European Sovereign Cloud”, a region located in Brandenburg (Germany), announced as run by a European structure and subsidiaries and operated exclusively by EU residents [10]. Its legal scope with regard to US law should be assessed by your legal adviser.
In France, the ANSSI SecNumCloud qualification sets the most demanding level: since version 3.2, a provider headquartered outside the European Union, or financially dependent on non-European companies, can no longer be qualified [11].
Being able to leave: the European Data Act
The Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025. Cloud provider switching charges are already limited to direct costs and will be banned from 12 January 2027; the notice period cannot exceed two months and the transition 30 days, unless technically impossible [12] [13]. Note: outbound traffic from normal use (your visitors, your employees, a multi-cloud setup) can still be charged [12].
Our advice
What we recommend for most SMEs and mid-sized companies: virtualised servers with a European host, with a hypervisor we administer for you (Proxmox VE, VMware, Virtuozzo or Hyper-V depending on the host or your choice), in a cluster if downtime of your tools would be costly.
- A known cost: rented capacity, traffic generally included, no I/O surprises.
- The choice of country and applicable law, according to your business and your customers.
- Servers that can be moved from one machine, host or country to another (see our migration guide).
- An off-site backup with WeDoBack, end-to-end encrypted and replicated across several European servers and countries (see our backup guide).
- Day-to-day operations: updates, 24/7 monitoring and security, handled by our technicians.
AWS or Azure remain relevant for highly variable workloads, an essential proprietary service or a global presence. We can also build a hybrid architecture that connects your virtualised servers to these clouds while limiting billed traffic.
Let’s choose your hosting together
Describe your software, your users and your constraints. We will propose the right hosting and its real cost.
Sources
Sources consulted on 17 October 2026. Supplier prices are shown excluding tax, in the currency and region of the published price list, and may change: always check the official page before deciding.
- AWS data transfer pricing survey (EC2), checked in June 2026 — egresscost.com/aws/data-transfer-pricing
- Microsoft Azure – Bandwidth pricing — azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bandwidth/
- Amazon EBS gp3 and snapshot pricing (Cloudburn); official AWS page: aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing — cloudburn.io/blog/amazon-ebs-pricing
- OVHcloud – Services inclus avec les serveurs Scale — www.ovhcloud.com/fr/bare-metal/scale/services-included/
- Hetzner Cloud traffic pricing survey — egresscost.com/hetzner
- Flexera – State of the Cloud 2025 report press release (19 March 2025) — www.flexera.com/about-us/press-center/new-flexera-report-finds-84-percent-of-organizations-struggle-to-manage-cloud-spend
- Network World – VMware price increases in Europe under Broadcom (23 May 2025) — www.networkworld.com/article/3994107/VMware-customers-in-europe-face-up-to-1500-price-increases-under-broadcom-ownership.html
- Proxmox – Proxmox VE 8.2 press release (AGPLv3 licence) — proxmox.com/en/about/company-details/press-releases/proxmox-virtual-environment-8-2
- WilmerHale – CLOUD Act analysis (March 2018) — www.wilmerhale.com/en/insights/blogs/wilmerhale-privacy-and-cybersecurity-law/congress-enacts-law-clarifying-reach-of-warrants-for-overseas-data
- Amazon – Launch of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud (15 January 2026) — press.aboutamazon.com/aws/2026/1/aws-launches-aws-european-sovereign-cloud-and-announces-expansion-across-europe
- Cloud Temple – SecNumCloud 3.2 standard; ANSSI standard: cyber.gouv.fr — www.cloud-temple.com/en/documentary-base/secnumcloud-standard-3-2/
- WZ-IT – Data Act: end of switching charges in 2027 (Articles 25, 29 and 34) — wz-it.com/en/blog/data-act-switching-charges-2027/
- Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 (Data Act) – EUR-Lex — eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2854/oj
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