Choosing your host means choosing the country and the company that keep your clients’ data. Let me help you decide between four solid European players, based on your profile.
When a firm sets up its own secure digital vault, one question comes up fast: where should it live? Good news, Europe has no shortage of serious hosts. OVHcloud, Scaleway, Infomaniak and o2switch are four good examples, each with a very different profile.
There’s no single best host. There’s the one that matches your practice, your technical autonomy, and the country where you want to keep your data.
The four criteria that decide it
- The country and the jurisdiction. Where are the servers, and what law is the company subject to?
- The type of data. Health data requires an HDS-certified host.
- Your autonomy. Do you want ready-to-use hosting, or infrastructure you manage yourself?
- Support. Do you have an agency or a provider to run the site?
OVHcloud: the versatile French pillar
OVHcloud is a French group with its own data centers. It covers every need, from shared hosting to dedicated servers, and offers an HDS-certified plan for health data.
It’s a safe choice for a firm that wants a major European player, and for healthcare professionals who need HDS-certified hosting.
Scaleway: French cloud for technical teams
Scaleway, a subsidiary of the French group Iliad, offers a modern, flexible cloud infrastructure. It suits an agency or a firm working with a technical provider that wants fine-grained control over its server.
Infomaniak: the Swiss benchmark
Infomaniak is an independent Swiss company, with its own data centers in Switzerland. Switzerland benefits from a European Union adequacy decision: your data there is protected at a level recognized as equivalent. A good choice for firms near the Swiss border, or those drawn to Swiss stability.
o2switch: the simple path for self-sufficient firms
o2switch is a French host based in Auvergne, with its own servers. Its single shared hosting plan is simple, and its support is well regarded. Ideal for a firm that wants to get started quickly, with a WordPress site and its vault.
My recommendation based on your profile
- Lawyer, accountant, broker, architect: o2switch to get started simply, OVHcloud for a major player.
- Healthcare professional: an HDS-certified plan, like the one OVHcloud offers.
- Agency managing several firms: Scaleway or OVHcloud, to manage your servers.
- Firm attached to Switzerland: Infomaniak.
What stays the same, whichever host you choose
With Client Vault, a secure digital vault installed on your WordPress site, your data stays with the host you chose. Nothing is stored with the vendor.
- Files are encrypted with AES-256 on your server.
- The activity log is sealed and timestamps every upload.
- The ZIP export lets you hand back a case file, or switch hosts, without losing anything.
To understand why the vendor’s country matters just as much as the server’s, read my article on the CLOUD Act and the GDPR.
Are you a WordPress agency?
Choosing the host is often your first recommendation. You host, you secure, you install the vault in the firm’s colors: a complete, recurring service.
What Client Vault doesn’t do
Let’s be upfront. Client Vault isn’t a host: it installs with the one you choose. Your site needs updates and backups, ideally handled by a trusted agency.
Next step
Client Vault
Your vault, with the host of your choice
On a video call, we look at your situation and I show you the vault installed on a real site.
- The vault from your client’s side
- Encryption and the activity log
- Exporting a case file
- Your hosting questions
Frequently asked questions
Which host should a law firm choose?
A European host like o2switch or OVHcloud works very well. What matters is knowing the country of the servers and the host’s jurisdiction.
Which host is right for health data?
An HDS-certified host, such as OVHcloud’s dedicated plan.
Is Infomaniak GDPR compliant?
Switzerland benefits from a European Union adequacy decision. Data hosted with Infomaniak is protected at a level recognized as equivalent.
Can you switch hosts later?
Yes. Your site and your vault can move, and the ZIP export lets you keep a copy of every case file.
Where is data stored with Client Vault?
On your server, with the host you chose. Nothing is stored with the vendor.
