Less reliance on US suppliers
Using European cloud providers and open-source solutions can reduce your dependence on specific US technologies and suppliers.
Digital sovereignty
Migrating to a European cloudLess reliance on US providers
From Microsoft Azure to a European, sovereign cloud. More control over your infrastructure, less reliance on US suppliers and potentially much lower costs.
Do you want greater digital sovereignty and less reliance on US cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud? Moving to a European, sovereign cloud environment can be an important step.
But how do you approach a migration like this? What European alternatives are available? What happens to your existing systems and integrations? How do you avoid unexpected costs during the migration? And what will the move ultimately deliver?
At Scrape IT, we are making this move ourselves. After more than 20 years as a Microsoft partner, we are migrating our services from Microsoft Azure to a European, sovereign cloud environment.
We are replacing existing cloud services with European hosting solutions and open-source alternatives. We also use the knowledge and practical experience we gain during this migration to help other organizations.
More control over your cloud
Microsoft AzureExisting cloud environment
European hosting + open source Your infrastructure.
More control. A sovereign cloud environment
More control. A sovereign cloud environment
More freedomLess dependencyControl over costs
Based on our own migration experience
Why make the move?
Why choose a European, sovereign cloud?
Many organizations use US cloud providers for their servers, applications, databases and other IT services.
This can work well for years. Even so, there are reasons to take another look at how your cloud environment is set up.
One of them is digital sovereignty.
Storing your data on European servers does not automatically mean you are fully independent of US law.
If you work with a US cloud provider, that provider may be subject to US law. Under certain circumstances, this can affect access to and availability of services, even when the data is physically stored in Europe.
There are other reasons to consider making the move, too.
More control over your infrastructure
You gain more options for deciding how your systems are configured, managed and expanded.
Lower cloud costs
European hosting combined with open-source software can be a financially attractive alternative to major cloud platforms. The actual savings depend on your infrastructure, capacity and management arrangements.
More freedom in your technology choices
Reducing your use of proprietary cloud services makes it easier to replace or move parts of your infrastructure.
Choosing a European cloud can therefore offer technical and financial benefits as well as greater digital sovereignty.
From Azure to Europe
From Microsoft Azure to European cloud alternatives
Microsoft Azure offers a wide range of services, from virtual servers and databases to storage, monitoring and data processing.
Over the years, many organizations have built their infrastructure around these services. As a result, their systems are often closely interconnected.
This makes switching more complex than simply choosing a new hosting provider.
Nevertheless, suitable European and open-source alternatives exist for many Azure services.
During our own migration, we have found that many parts of our existing infrastructure can be configured differently, without having to remain dependent on Microsoft Azure.
Which components can you migrate?
Depending on your current cloud environment, we can help you assess and migrate various components:
- 01
Cloud servers and virtual machines
Move existing servers to a European hosting environment.
- 02
Windows servers
Assess which systems are suitable for a move to Linux.
- 03
Databases and storage
Move existing data and storage to a new infrastructure.
- 04
Applications
Adapt existing applications for a different hosting environment.
- 05
Azure services
Explore which services can be replaced with open-source alternatives.
- 06
System integrations
Ensure that existing connections between applications and services continue to work.
Not every Azure service can be replaced directly. Sometimes changes to the infrastructure or applications are needed.
That is why a successful cloud migration starts with understanding your current environment and the dependencies between systems.
Technology, dependencies and management
What makes migrating from Microsoft Azure complex?
One of the most important lessons from our own migration is that the technical move is not always the biggest challenge.
Alternatives are available for many services. But the way cloud platforms structure their infrastructure, services and pricing can make switching difficult.
Vendor lock-in with Microsoft Azure: why switching can be costly
Microsoft Azure offers many services that allow businesses to build and manage their infrastructure within a single platform.
But the more dependent you become on that environment, the harder it can be to switch to another cloud provider later.
This is known as vendor lock-in.
One of the biggest challenges we encountered during our migration was Microsoft Azure's outbound data transfer charges.
When systems exchange data within the Azure network, the charges are relatively low. But as soon as you move a system outside Azure while it continues to exchange large amounts of data with systems inside Azure, costs can rise significantly.
This makes it harder to migrate away from Azure gradually. Costs may actually increase temporarily during the transition.
For Scrape IT, this was one of the most difficult parts of the migration.
Vendor lock-in is therefore about the financial consequences of leaving a cloud platform as well as the technology involved.
Dependencies between cloud services
Many applications depend on multiple services within the same cloud platform.
For example, an application may use a database, storage, an authentication service and various network components.
Moving one component can affect other systems.
It is therefore important to identify in advance which services communicate with each other and what changes are needed to make them work outside Azure.
Technical changes and management
A European cloud environment may be set up differently from an existing Azure environment.
Some management tasks that Microsoft handles automatically may need to be organized in-house or assigned to a hosting partner when you use a different solution.
This may require extra time and technical expertise at first.
In return, you may gain more freedom to configure your infrastructure to suit your needs.
Understanding the costs
How much does migrating to a European cloud cost?
Switching away from a US cloud provider? Surely that would be far too expensive?
This is one of the arguments used against moving to a European, sovereign cloud.
But is it really true?
During our own migration at Scrape IT, we have found that European hosting combined with open-source software can be significantly cheaper than our existing Azure environment.
Of course, you need to look beyond monthly hosting costs alone.
The following costs also play a role:
- Your existing monthly cloud hosting costs.
- License and subscription costs.
- Storage and data transfer costs.
- The time required for the technical migration.
- Any changes needed to applications and systems.
- Maintenance, monitoring and management costs.
A move may therefore require a one-time investment, followed by lower recurring monthly costs.
Our own infrastructure
Our own cloud costs: Microsoft Azure versus a European cloud
We want to make the financial impact of our own migration clear.
That is why we are sharing our actual costs and savings.
| Cost item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monthly costs of the previous cloud environment | € 1,944.44 |
| Monthly European cloud costs | € 148.00 |
| Estimated migration labor costs | € 5,000.00 |
| Monthly savings | € 1,796.44 |
| Percentage cost savings | 92.4% |
| Estimated payback period (months) | 2.8 |
Based on our current costs, we expect the move to a European cloud environment to reduce our monthly costs by approximately 92%.
The migration is not yet fully complete. The time required and the associated migration costs are therefore currently based on an estimate.
Based on this estimate, we expect to recover the migration costs within approximately three months.
The actual migration costs and payback period may still change once the migration is fully complete.
Why our cost savings will not be the same for every organization
The cost savings we are achieving through our migration are substantial. It is important to explain that our infrastructure has several specific characteristics that contribute to these savings.
For example, we use many environments that require relatively little processing power (CPU). This allows us to combine multiple environments and run them on just one or two machines.
Our web scrapers are also deliberately designed to avoid placing unnecessary load on websites. They collect data throughout the day, keeping processing requirements relatively low and allowing us to use our server capacity efficiently.
We have also deliberately chosen to handle more technical management ourselves. This gives us more control over our infrastructure and reduces the cost of external management, but it naturally requires our own technical expertise and time.
Our savings therefore cannot be applied directly to other organizations. Potential savings from a cloud migration depend on factors such as the existing infrastructure, required processing power, use of cloud services and how management is organized.
What our experience demonstrates above all is that a European, sovereign cloud environment does not automatically have to cost more than a US cloud provider.
Making the move ourselves
Our experience migrating to a sovereign cloud
At Scrape IT, we are working toward greater digital sovereignty ourselves. After more than 20 years as a Microsoft partner, we decided to reduce our reliance on US cloud providers.
That is why we are migrating our services from Microsoft Azure to a European, sovereign cloud environment.
During this transition, we have gained valuable experience with technology, costs and management. We are happy to share that knowledge with other organizations considering a similar move.
From Windows to Linux
One of our first steps was moving from Windows servers to Linux.
Our technical staff needed some time to adjust at first. Not everything works the way you are used to, and some tasks require a different approach.
They now see Linux as a flexible system that offers many options for configuring infrastructure to suit their needs.
AI has also proved useful when learning new systems and solving technical problems.
Replacing Azure services with open-source alternatives
Open-source alternatives exist for many standard Microsoft Azure services.
In fact, several services within major cloud platforms use open-source technology themselves.
One example is Apache Spark, a technology also used within Microsoft's data and analytics platforms.
In some cases, open-source solutions allow you to use the same underlying technology without remaining dependent on a specific cloud platform.
This does not mean every service can be replaced without changes. But our experience is that the technical move for several components is less extensive than we initially expected.
More control over maintenance and configuration
Within Azure, many infrastructure components are offered as managed services.
This is convenient, but it also means you depend on the platform's capabilities, settings and pricing.
For our new infrastructure, we have chosen to handle more tasks ourselves.
This sometimes requires extra maintenance and configuration, but also gives us more control.
Organizations that prefer to outsource this work can choose European hosting partners that provide technical management.
European hosting partners offer good alternatives
During our migration, we have found that European providers can deliver high-quality hosting solutions.
Various service models are available, from infrastructure you manage entirely yourself to environments managed by an external provider.
For us, this confirms that a US hyperscaler is not necessary for every application.
A careful approach
How does Scrape IT help you migrate to a European cloud?
Would you like to explore whether your organization can move to a European, sovereign cloud environment?
Digital sovereignty involves more than moving your data to Europe. Your choice of hosting provider, the technology you use and the way your infrastructure is managed all play a role.
That is why we start by mapping your existing infrastructure, technical dependencies and potential costs.
At Scrape IT, we use our own migration experience to support other organizations through this process.
-
Assessing your existing cloud environment
We start by mapping your current infrastructure.
Which servers, databases, applications and cloud services do you use? How are these systems connected? And which components depend on specific technology within Microsoft Azure or another cloud provider?
This gives us an overview of the components that could potentially be migrated.
-
Exploring European alternatives
Next, we assess which European hosting providers and open-source solutions could be suitable.
We take into account your existing technical requirements, performance, required capacity and management options.
We also identify which components can be moved directly and where technical changes are needed.
-
Creating a migration plan
Not all systems need to be moved at the same time.
We assess which sequence makes the most sense technically and financially.
We pay particular attention to dependencies between systems, data transfer costs and minimizing disruption during the transition.
-
Supporting the technical migration
Depending on your existing infrastructure, we help move and reconfigure systems and services.
This may involve servers, databases, storage or replacing specific Azure services with European or open-source alternatives.
We also check how existing applications and integrations work within the new environment.
-
Verification and optimization
After moving the systems, it is important to verify that everything is working properly.
We review infrastructure operation, performance and potential improvements to the setup.
We can also explore whether further savings are possible by adjusting capacity or configuration.
Exploring the possibilities together
Looking for greater digital sovereignty? We can help with your cloud migration
Do you want to reduce your reliance on US cloud providers and gain more control over your data and IT infrastructure?
At Scrape IT, we can help you explore the options for moving existing systems to a European, sovereign cloud environment.
We have experienced the technical and financial challenges of a cloud migration firsthand.
From replacing Azure services with open-source alternatives to handling data transfers, dependencies and setting up a new hosting environment.
We are happy to share that knowledge.
Whether you want to explore available European alternatives, understand the potential costs or get support with the migration itself, we are happy to work through the options with you.
Curious about what moving to a European cloud could mean for your organization?