STACKIT and Amazon Web Services (AWS) now compete for European cloud workloads under two very different value propositions: one focused on regional sovereignty, simplified commercial terms and tight retail group integration; the other on global scale, breadth of services and a mature ecosystem. Readers receive a practical, evidence-focused comparison that highlights where STACKIT can be a true alternative for companies operating in England and the EU, where AWS still outperforms, and exactly how to evaluate price, latency, compliance and migration effort for real production workloads.
Overview: STACKIT and AWS at a glance
What STACKIT offers
- STACKIT is the cloud brand of the Schwarz Group, designed for European customers with data residency and integrated colocation options. See the official service overview at STACKIT official site.
- Typical selling points: European data centres, simplified support for retail and manufacturing use cases, and pre-integrated connectivity to Schwarz Group operations.
What AWS offers
- AWS provides global regions, hundreds of managed services, broad partner ecosystem and mature DevOps tools. Official service and compliance information is available at AWS official site and compliance details at AWS compliance.
- Strengths: multi-region disaster recovery, global CDN, vast SaaS and ISV integrations.
Key decision vectors for England-based organisations
- Data sovereignty and GDPR nuance
- Latency to EU and UK endpoints
- Price per workload (Kubernetes, block storage, databases)
- Managed service availability (managed DBs, analytics)
- Migration friction and partner ecosystem
Cost and TCO: detailed workloads and sample calculations
Methodology and assumptions
- Comparison focuses on three representative workloads: Kubernetes production cluster (3 nodes), transactional database (managed), and object storage for backups.
- Costs estimated using public pricing pages, tooling and common enterprise assumptions: 3-year TCO, 24/7 baseline workloads, typical sustained CPU utilisation 40–60% for application nodes, daily transfer of 200 GB out during peak sync.
- Tools and calculators referenced: AWS Pricing Calculator, STACKIT price references at STACKIT.
Sample illustrative cost table (example calculations, verify with live pricing for procurement)
| Workload |
AWS (monthly, illustrative) |
STACKIT (monthly, illustrative) |
Notes/Assumptions |
| 3-node k8s (3x 4vCPU, 16GB) |
£360–£520 |
£300–£420 |
Includes instance compute, basic networking; excludes managed EKS control plane fees for AWS in lower bound |
| Managed relational DB (db.m5.large or equivalent) |
£220–£340 |
£180–£300 |
Backup storage and IOPS may change totals |
| Object storage (5 TB hot) |
£80–£140 |
£60–£120 |
Egress and PUT/GET costs vary; STACKIT may bundle ingress/egress differently |
| Data egress (200 GB/day typical) |
£120–£350 |
£60–£200 |
Regional egress pricing and peering significantly impact totals |
Illustrative totals for a medium production estate (per month): AWS ~£1,000–£1,500 | STACKIT ~£800–£1,100 — actuals depend on discounts, reserved instances, and transfer architecture.
Where cost gaps appear
- Data transfer and peering: For EU-focused networks, local providers often offer lower egress or bundled peering; confirm contractual egress caps and interconnect pricing.
- Managed services breadth: AWS charges separately for many control plane services (e.g., EKS control plane), while regional providers may include simpler managed control planes in base fees.
- Discounting: Long-term reserved instances, Savings Plans and committed-use discounts on AWS can significantly change TCO; negotiate committed volumes with STACKIT for parity.
.jpg)
.jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg).jpg)
- Recommended open tools: iperf3 for network throughput, fio for block I/O, and sysbench for CPU and OLTP simulation.
- Basic test topology: one client in London (England) vs targets in EU regions used by STACKIT and AWS. Tests run at low-concurrency and at simulated load to show latency, jitter and throughput.
- Public method references: network benchmarking best practice at IETF and storage benchmarking guidelines from the FIO project.
Typical findings (observational guidance)
- Latency: For England-to-Northern EU regions, latency differences are often ~5–20 ms depending on PoP and carrier. Local STACKIT PoPs can provide slightly lower intra-EU latency if a nearby data centre exists.
- Throughput: Both providers deliver multi-Gbps links for VMs; throughput constraints are typically network configuration or VM type related rather than provider-imposed for typical enterprise workloads.
- I/O performance: AWS Nitro-based instances with provisioned IOPS or gp3 volumes achieve predictable IOPS at scale. STACKIT block storage performance depends on chosen class; running fio tests is recommended during POC to match application IOPS profiles.
How to reproduce practical tests
- Launch equivalent VM sizes in target regions
- Use iperf3 with bi-directional tests for 5–15 minutes
- Run fio profiles matching application I/O (randread, randwrite, mixed)
- Record CPU, disk latency (ms), throughput (MB/s), and 95th percentile latency for network
Compliance, Data Sovereignty, SLA and Certifications
Compliance matrix (core items for EU enterprises)
| Topic |
AWS |
STACKIT (Schwarz Group) |
Notes / Implication |
| GDPR readiness |
Extensive controls, processor/addendum templates (AWS GDPR Center) |
Regional compliance positioning; review DPA and processors |
Verify contractual DPA language and subprocessors list |
| ISO 27001 / ISO 27701 |
Many AWS services compliant, certificates region-specific |
STACKIT publishes certifications (review certificate pages) |
Request current certificate scans and audit statements |
| SOC 2 / ISAE 3402 |
AWS provides SOC reports on request |
STACKIT may provide equivalent audit reports |
Enterprises should request latest reports under NDA |
| Data residency |
Achieved per region selection |
Core proposition: EU data centres |
Confirm geofencing, backups and support storage locations |
| Public sector certifications |
AWS has specific cleared programs |
STACKIT may pursue specific national accreditations |
For public contracts, confirm approval lists and tender fit |
Sources: GDPR legislation at EUR-Lex, ENISA risk guidance at ENISA.
SLA and support differences
- AWS publishes SLAs per service (compute, storage, RDS). See AWS SLAs.
- STACKIT SLAs vary by offering; confirm latency, availability and RTO/RPO for each managed service in contract.
- Support: AWS offers tiered enterprise support with designated TAMs; regional providers may offer local-language support and fixed response SLAs at different tiers.
Migration patterns and recommended approach
- Common patterns: rehost (lift-and-shift), replatform (containerize and move), refactor (use cloud-native managed services).
- For AWS → STACKIT, recommended steps: inventory, dependency mapping, POC for networking and storage, proof of compliance, pilot migration, cutover and rollback plan.
- Use migration tools and practices: agentless replication for VMs, database replication (logical for PostgreSQL/MySQL), and container registry migration.
- Use Terraform to keep deployments portable. Official Terraform docs: Terraform.
Example checklist: moving a Kubernetes workload
- Export workloads: container images, manifests, secrets (use sealed-secrets or HashiCorp Vault)
- Validate storage classes: map AWS EBS storageclass to STACKIT equivalent
- Reconfigure DNS and ingress (verify TLS cert management)
- Test stateful components in staging (DB replicas, caches)
- Execute cutover during low-traffic window and monitor metrics
Migration resources and partners
- Consider partners with European cloud migration experience and references. For tools, examine open migration tools and cross-cloud CI/CD pipelines.
Practical gaps versus top-10 competition and how to close them
Gaps commonly found in public comparisons
- Lack of transparent workload-level pricing and reproducible benchmarks
- Few migration playbooks or IaC templates
- Sparse compliance matrices and up-to-date audit links
How this guide closes gaps
- Provides a reproducible benchmarking methodology and sample cost model
- Offers IaC and migration checklist to reduce migration risk
- Shows where to request evidence (certificates, SOC reports) and how to validate
Frequently asked questions
What is the single biggest operational difference between STACKIT and AWS?
The primary operational difference is scale and breadth: AWS provides a global service catalog and advanced managed services, while STACKIT focuses on regional control, data residency and simpler integration with Schwarz Group operations.
Can STACKIT host all workloads currently run on AWS?
Most traditional workloads can run on STACKIT, but certain AWS-native managed services (e.g., Lambda edge integrations, specialized analytics services) may require architectural changes or third-party alternatives.
Is data sovereignty guaranteed by using STACKIT?
Data residency can be achieved by selecting EU-only regions and contractual DPAs. Guarantees depend on contract terms, subprocessors and backup/DR locations; always request written confirmation in the DPA and technical annex.
How to validate compliance claims from either provider?
Request current ISO certificates, SOC/ISAE reports, and the list of subprocessors. Verify certificates against issuing bodies and ask for recent audit statements under NDA.
Which provider is cheaper for Kubernetes workloads in England?
Costs depend on instance sizing, data transfer patterns and support levels. For EU-only traffic with high egress, regional providers like STACKIT can be more competitive; for complex multi-region architectures AWS may provide better reserved-instance discounts.
Run equivalent VMs in both providers, use iperf3 and fio with identical test profiles, and measure 95th percentile latencies and IOPS under production-like load.
What are the migration risks of moving from AWS to STACKIT?
Primary risks: incompatible managed services, IAM and identity federation differences, and DNS or network misconfigurations. Mitigate by running canaries and keeping rollback plans.
Should public-sector organisations prefer STACKIT over AWS?
Preference depends on national procurement rules and accredited cloud lists. If specific national accreditations are required, verify whether STACKIT holds them and whether AWS meets procurement criteria.
Conclusion
Choosing between STACKIT and AWS requires aligning technical needs, compliance obligations and long-term commercial strategy. For EU/England-centric workloads prioritising data sovereignty and simplified contractual models, STACKIT can be a compelling alternative. For multi-region scale, complex managed services and expansive partner ecosystems, AWS remains the dominant choice. A data-driven approach — reproduce benchmarks with iperf3/fio, request audit artefacts, and run a pilot using Terraform for portability — delivers the best outcome for production migration decisions.
