Switching and Data Portability

You can switch to another provider, move your data to your own infrastructure or have your data erased at any time. The contractual provisions can be found in Section 18 of our Terms of Service. This page describes how switching works in practice.

Important: our cloud servers are billed by the hour. If you delete a server in the customer account, it is erased immediately together with all data stored on it and cannot be restored. If you want to switch, please export your data or submit a switching request before deleting the server.

You have full administrator access to your cloud servers. You can therefore export your data at any time yourself, without our involvement and without any restriction by us:

• Files and databases: via your own administrator access, for example with SSH, SFTP, rsync, RDP or the export functions of your applications and databases.
• Complete disk image: start the rescue system in the customer account and copy the entire virtual disk at block level as a raw image, for example with dd, to the target system of your choice.
• Snapshots and backups: restore a snapshot or backup to a server and export the data as described above.
• Configuration: the configuration of your servers (resources, operating system, location, IP addresses, reverse DNS and network settings) is displayed in the customer account and is provided on request in a machine-readable format.
• Account and billing data: invoices can be downloaded in the customer account as PDF and as XRechnung. A copy of your account data is available in the customer account; on request, we provide account, contract and usage data in a machine-readable format.

We use open, interoperable standards. The following register lists the data structures and formats of the exportable data and is kept up to date:

• Deleted servers cannot be restored. A switching request must therefore be submitted before deletion.
• IP addresses from our address space cannot be transferred to another provider. Please plan DNS changes in good time.
• Snapshots and backups are stored in an internal format of our platform and cannot be downloaded directly. Their content can be exported after restoring them to a server.
• Data relating to the internal functioning of our infrastructure, such as hypervisor, network, monitoring and security configurations, is not exported, as its disclosure would endanger the security of our infrastructure or reveal trade secrets.
• The duration of the export depends on the amount of data and the bandwidth of the target system.

We do not charge any switching charges, including data egress charges. During the transitional period, only the regular hourly fees for the servers you continue to use apply. The data retrieval period is free of charge. There are no early termination fees, as our cloud servers have no minimum term.

We are a company based in Germany and are subject exclusively to the law of the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany. We have no parent company or shareholders outside the European Union. Our cloud servers are operated on our own hardware at the following locations:

In accordance with Article 32 of the Data Act, we take the following measures to prevent governmental access to, or transfer of, your data that would conflict with the law of the European Union or of a Member State:

• Technical: operation on our own hardware in data centres in Germany, access to the infrastructure only for authorised employees with personal access credentials, logical separation of customer systems and encrypted transmission of administrative connections.
• Organisational: every request for access to customer data is reviewed by us individually. We only comply with requests from authorities outside the European Union if they are based on an international agreement, such as a mutual legal assistance treaty, or are otherwise permitted under Union law. We object to unlawful requests, disclose only the minimum amount of data necessary and inform the affected customer before disclosure, unless this is prohibited by law.
• Contractual: we do not conclude contracts that would grant third parties outside the European Union access to customer data on our cloud servers. Our obligations as a processor are set out in the data processing agreement.

For switching requests and questions about data portability, please contact our support via the support ticket system or by email at support@ecso.cloud.