The Best Cloud Providers for Ukrainian Business

Doing business in Ukraine is already quite challenging, with blackouts and war-induced obstacles. And the biggest goal for companies is to simply withstand the threats and stay available to their clients – this can be realized with the help from cloud providers, managing their infrastructure and keeping the operations on track.

Among the many cloud providers on the market, it might hard to choose the best fit. We determined 4 of the most popular and most helpful options.

No. 1 - GigaCloud

GigaCloud is a Ukrainian cloud provider, helping companies confidently migrate data and services online: with ease, clarity and sense of support every step of the way. Since 2016, the provider has implemented cloud projects for over 1,500 companies, including large enterprises and public agencies, making them available to over 20 million people every day. For two years in a row, GigaCloud has been recognized as the leading provider on the local cloud market.

The provider offers private, public and dedicated clouds alike, various virtualizations (VMware, OpenStack with KVM, Hyper-V), business continuity solutions, multiple cybersecurity tools, industry-specific ready-to-use solutions, as well as assistance with certifications and AI consulting services — https://gigacloud.ua/.

Best suited for

GigaCloud is the best option for businesses operating in Ukraine, especially when it comes to critical systems. And here’s why:

• The provider offers sovereign cloud solutions, ensuring compliance with the national legislature and enhanced sensitive data protection.
• Its data center are located in Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv) and Poland (Warsaw). The company can also supply extra sites on the basis of their partners’ data centers – for instance, GigaCloud cooperates with Equinix and OVHCloud. The latter is also considered one of the digital sovereignty champions in Europe, so it is a great opportunity for GigaCloud to learn from its experience and introduce the similar policies in its operation.
• It is possible for the client to pay for GigaCloud services in UAH and receive timely technical support in Ukrainian. In most part, the support is free and available 24/7.
• High level of security in the cloud is ensured by certifications – PCI DSS, CIPS (Ukrainian: КСЗІ), ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, CSA STAR. Also, there is a range of CyberSec tools, like PAM, SOC, SIEM, MFA, key management, CISCO firewall, etc.

Limitations

Sure, outside of Europe, the company offers less global scope. However, this can also be an advantage, taken how many companies are looking for sovereign solutions now.

Also, it offers smaller amount of services, compared to global hyperscalers. They are usually neatly organized and have a clear naming, but require more customization, work with the technical support and analyzing the infrastructure and its demands. It might take some time and a great deal of conversations with the provider’s team.

No. 2 - AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform with over 200 tools for storing data, managing apps, ensuring automation, etc. It is currently available in more than 120 availability zones. In 2006, AWS was the first to offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where clients can rent the computing resources and pay exclusively for what’s used. At that time, the provider revolutionized the market by making the cloud computing more accessible and affordable.

Best suited for

Amazon Web Services offers a number of advantages that have made it globally popular and helped it capture 32% of the global cloud market:

• AWS has a massive ecosystem of tools, so that you can find virtually any feature one can imagine in the cloud.
• The broad footprint of availability zones and regions allows companies to deploy services closer to their customers, reduce latency, and build more resilient IT architectures.
• Companies using a lot of third-party integrations, as Amazon has many ways to easily connect to virtually any popular SaaS with built-in features. It saves time on additional customizations and fine-tuning.
• Recently, the company has deeply focused on services catering to AI and ML projects. Through Amazon Bedrock, the user can connect the most popular AI models, including Claude, Llama and Mistral.

Limitations

This provider typically comes as the one with the most complex pricing. The AWS website even has a whole ‘Understanding unexpected charges’ section, specifying lots of cases when users get puzzled about their bill. Apart from this, the prices are also high, namely when it comes to support – if you really want to solve a complex issue, you need to plunk down quite a sum.

Another major drawback is the chaotic organization of services, with many tools overlapping each other’s features. As a result, companies struggle to choose the right services for their needs, spend too much time training teams, and often waste resources.

No. 3 – Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform with over 600 services in the ecosystem, covering compute, storage, networking, databases, AI, and enterprise tooling. It enables businesses to develop, run, and manage apps on the cloud and extend their existing on-prem systems using hybrid and multi-cloud environments. According to Microsoft, Azure is a worldwide cloud computing platform that can be used for building and growing new apps and managing existing ones.

Best suited for

• The biggest benefit is Azure’s native integration with Microsoft 365 products, allowing them to work seamlessly and interconnectively. So if you use Microsoft stack, Azure would be more convenient in customization. It is also beneficial for users of Active Directory, SQL Server, Dynamics, GitHub, and Windows in general.
• Building hybrid infrastructures. Thanks to a whole system of hybrid services (Azure Local, Azure Stack Hub, Azure Arc, Azure IoT Edge, Azure Hybrid Benefit, etc.), the user can combine various on-prem services, several clouds and edge computing.
• Enhanced cybersecurity. Azure is centered on identity and access management (IAM), making your infrastructure less vulnerable to unsanctioned sign-ins and cyberattacks.

Limitations

Since it has a very close association with Windows operating system, using Azure might be difficult for enterprises that use other platforms or open source technology. Although Azure supports operating systems such as Linux and Kubernetes, databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, etc., its main benefits remain rooted in the Microsoft environment.

Also, similar to AWS, Azure has a complex suite of tools and unpredictable costs, so companies require a strong strategy in using the Azure platform efficiently.

No. 4 - Google Cloud

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services run by Google. It lets you rent computing resources and is mostly popular for data analytics, AI tools and natively supported containers for software creation.

Best suited for

• Google Cloud is a strong choice for software development teams, especially those working with data-heavy applications, AI, machine learning, Kubernetes, and cloud-native services. Its tools are generally intuitive for developers and support fast experimentation, deployment and scaling.
• It is also great in working with large data volumes, especially thanks to tools like BigQuery. It is a perfect fit for companies that need fast data processing, reporting, forecasting and business intelligence.
• For businesses already using Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and other Google Workspace elements, GCP can be a logical extension.

Limitations

For enterprises, Google Cloud can feel less mature than AWS or Azure, particularly in terms of customer support and hands-on guidance.

Also, Google has a reputation of a company constantly rebranding, shutting down and merging its products, which may create uncertainty and make long-term planning more difficult. Users often have to get used to new interfaces, migrate their data in-between tools and change cloud strategies because of such incosistency.

Extra tips

• When choosing a cloud provider for doing business in Ukraine and/or the EU, do not fall for the lower prices some smaller local providers usually offer – this can cost you more in a long-term perspective. As they can often use worn-out equipment, have no necessary certifications (so your certification process can take more time and money), and in general, be less protected from possible cyberattacks.
• If you need a sovereign cloud, it is best not to go with hyperscalers (AWS, Azure or GCP), as they are still subjected to the U.S. legislature. What they call ‘sovereign’ is simply a cloud hosted in the EU, but in fact it doesn’t fully protect critical data and can potentially disclose your data upon the American government’s request.
• The closer provider’s data centers are, the lower latency and network expenses their users receive. Currently, hyperscalers don’t have cloud regions or availability zones in Ukraine, while major local providers usually do. It’s better to choose providers offering availability zones both in Ukraine and abroad for better redundancy and disaster recovery.

Conclusion

When choosing the right cloud provider in Ukraine, there is no fit-for-all answer. The final option strongly depends on the company’s goals, industry, budget and regions of its operation.

For Ukrainian businesses, especially those working with critical data or regulated industries, local expertise, Ukrainian data centers, predictable support and compliance with national requirements can matter just as much as the number of available services. So, increasingly more enterprises are looking for a strong Ukrainian-founded provider to create a wholesome sovereign infrastructure or a multi-cloud comprehensive infrastructure for various goals.