Scaleway Expands Sovereign Cloud Reach with AMD EPYC™ Server CPUs

Scaleway Expands Sovereign Cloud Reach with AMD EPYC™ Server CPUs

Scaleway expands cloud services using 5th Gen AMD EPYC Server CPUs, delivering flexible, efficient, and cost-effective solutions for diverse workloads

Large cloud service providers (CSPs) must accommodate a broad range of customers’ workload needs. For the last eight years, major European CSP Scaleway has been solving this challenge with AMD processors. Now, thanks to the latest 5^th Gen AMD EPYC™ Server CPUs, the company can address an even wider market with compelling solutions.

“We call Scaleway Europe’s sovereign cloud and AI provider,” says Raphael Rebeyrotte, Head of Product Bare Metal, Scaleway. “We aim to deliver a secure, transparent, and sustainable cloud platform built on key values of sovereignty and security, engineered in and for Europe.”

However, Scaleway must accommodate a plethora of customer requirements. “Our pledge is to offer a wide range of Bare Metal services to support the most versatile use cases for our customers, from virtualization to large databases, to compute intensive workloads, but also security- and sovereignty-driven applications,” says Rebeyrotte. “With Bare Metal, we offer raw compute power and a predictable pricing model for production workloads, but most importantly, services that are deeply integrated into Scaleway's cloud ecosystem so that our customers can take advantage of hybrid cloud architectures, mixing dedicated servers and public cloud services.”

Scaleway’s servers may run as many applications as the company has customers. “We need general purpose platforms that best fit the broad use cases,” says Rebeyrotte. “We offer 150+ IaaS, PaaS, Public Cloud & AI Products at Scaleway, and this includes Bare Metal. Our Bare Metal customers need dedicated resources with strong and predictable performance, plus full control over their infrastructure stack, reliability, consistency, and good economics at scale.”

Perfect Balance with AMD EPYC Server CPUs

Scaleway has been leveraging AMD technology to deliver this for some time. “We started to introduce AMD EPYC Server CPUs eight years ago,” says Stephane Dutilleul, VP, Hardware Engineering. “We were the first CSP in the world to introduce them into the cloud market. Since then, we have built a very strong relationship with the AMD team.”

The flexibility of AMD EPYC Server CPUs has kept Scaleway deploying the processors from the start. “Since we don't have full control over customer workloads, we have to find the most flexible solution for them,” says Dutilleul. “It could be a storage solution, it could be a Bare Metal solution, or entry level. We need to find a CPU that is a perfect fit for all of these.”

One of Scaleway’s goals with its latest deployment was to strengthen its entry-level Bare Metal offering. “We've recently launched servers powered by AMD EPYC 4005 CPUs into both our Dedibox Pro and Elastic Metal Beryllium ranges,” says Rebeyrotte. “We needed a platform that is both cost-effective and production-ready. That was the balance we found in the AMD EPYC 4005 Server CPUs. We've been able to cover use cases like virtualization, web hosting, business applications, private infrastructure stacks, and compute-heavy workloads that benefit from the strong single-core frequency of this CPU.”

“What particularly caught our attention with this EPYC 4005 Server CPU series is the balance,” continues Rebeyrotte. “It delivered the exact kind of performance we need to address the entry-level enterprise-grade segment, but with a very low power envelope of 65 watts for the CPU. That matters a lot because our customers are not just buying raw compute. They’re buying a combination of production readiness and price predictability. AMD EPYC 4005 Server CPUs give us the strong foundation we were looking for.”

AMD Delivers High Frequency and Low Power Consumption

“We didn’t consider any other CPU vendors,” continues Rebeyrotte. “The market is calling for AMD in this segment, and this EPYC 4005 series benefits from the popularity of its predecessor, the 4004 Server CPU. We were convinced to adopt the 4005 series to fill that gap in our product range. We knew that customers were clamoring for AMD EPYC 4005 Server CPUs, because of their high clock speed and favorable power envelope.”

A dependable hardware roadmap is another requirement for CSPs. “Scaleway focuses on managing the refresh of our portfolio,” says Rebeyrotte. “As soon as the latest CPU is available in the market, our challenge is to put it in dedicated servers so that our customers can get their hands on it. AMD is a natural fit because it enables us to refresh the portfolio with a compelling new offering while maintaining the same level of compatibility, reliability, and price positioning.”

“All the services we offer on top of the cloud are built on AMD,” says Dutilleul, praising the close relationship Scaleway has with the local European AMD team. “By having a clear view of the AMD roadmap, we can always find the solution that fits our needs. Other CPU vendors have so many SKUs that we are lost in all the options. With AMD, it's clear.”

Scaleway has also been deploying AMD EPYC 9005 Series Server CPUs. “The core density is a major benefit,” says Dutilleul. “In our business, we don't want to go for dual socket chassis, and we don't want to have too big a CPU.” Despite limiting its cloud servers to 64-cores, Scaleway has benefitted from the impressive performance of 5^th Gen AMD EPYC Server CPUs.

Expanding Into the Future with AMD EPYC Server CPUs

However, energy efficiency was particularly important for the company’s entry-level Bare Metal services. “With the AMD EPYC 4005 Server CPUs, we really leverage this low power consumption envelope,” says Rebeyrotte. Scaleway provides customers with a carbon calculator, giving them the exact CO2 emissions and electricity consumption for their servers and workloads, so they can see just how much energy and running costs are being saved. “Low power CPUs like the AMD EPYC 4005 Server CPUs enable incredibly competitive customer pricing. That's why EPYC 4005 servers are a really good fit for entry level enterprise-grade platforms.”

The majority of Scaleway’s servers are now powered by AMD EPYC Server CPUs. “Over 85% of the processors that we procured in the last few years were from AMD, a total of 20,000 servers,” says Rebeyrotte. “Servers powered by AMD CPUs underpin most of our cloud services and AI platform, from Bare Metal to managed inference instances and GPU clusters. They are at the forefront of our underlying infrastructure. AMD has become such a strong name for Bare Metal servers.”

Scaleway intends to stay with AMD for the foreseeable future. “We will be there when AMD releases the next 4000 Series CPUs,” says Rebeyrotte. “We already see strong relevance for AMD across Bare Metal, but also more broadly across all our portfolio, whether it's virtual instances, storage, or AI services. Everywhere that performance, efficiency, and customer choice matter, we see a good place for AMD CPUs in the future. Our long-term strategy is to keep expanding our cloud and AI platform with our European sovereignty DNA. AMD helps us strengthen our product diversity and bring innovative compute options to that fast-moving market. We really count on AMD for future CPU product development and our ability to benefit our customers.”

“The AMD brand and its CPUs have an aura now,” concludes Rebeyrotte. “At Scaleway, there’s no discussion with IT stakeholders about whether we should go with AMD CPUs or another vendor. There is no question for entry-level enterprise-grade servers. Clients, analysts, and the market itself are all clamoring for AMD EPYC 4005 Series Server CPUs.”