Ailanto has agreed a partnership with Cubbit to offer sovereign, S3-compatible cloud object storage for Swiss enterprises. Hosting and operations will be based in Switzerland, with options for canton-level geographic controls.
The deal marks Ailanto’s entry into the cloud storage market as a service provider. The Swiss IT systems integrator plans to integrate Cubbit’s DS3 Composer software into its Swiss partners’ data centres and offer an S3 cloud storage service through a federated model.
Ailanto supports enterprise customers with infrastructure operations, security, system integration, and AI projects. Its customers include organisations in banking, the public sector, healthcare, and utilities sectors that often face strict data handling and residency requirements, as well as procurement constraints linked to operational risk and oversight.
The service is positioned around data sovereignty and local control, alongside competitive pricing. It enters a Swiss cloud market where large international providers have a significant presence, while some organisations seek tighter control over data location and access governance.
Concerns about extraterritorial access requests have become more prominent in board and IT discussions in recent years. Some Swiss organisations also consider exposure to foreign legal frameworks when choosing cloud services, including the US Cloud Act, which is sometimes cited in cross-border data access debates.
Service design
DS3 Composer is software-defined object storage that uses the S3 interface, a common standard for integrating applications with object storage. Ailanto plans to deploy it on its data centre partners’ infrastructure, with the resulting service hosted and operated in Switzerland.
The design includes service tiers delivered through a single management interface. It also supports “geofencing” deployments to specific geographic areas, which the partners say can help meet sectoral and regulatory requirements at the level of individual Swiss cantons.
Cubbit’s approach fragments data into encrypted pieces and distributes them across multiple locations. The companies refer to this as “pulverised” storage, saying data is never exposed in full while remaining accessible.
Initial launch capacity is set at 1 petabyte, with further expansion planned from the second half of 2026.
Deployment options
Customers can choose between a fully managed cloud object storage service, hosted and operated in Switzerland in Ailanto partners’ data centres, and an on-premises deployment. The on-premises option runs DS3 Composer on the customer’s own infrastructure.
Dual deployment models have become more common across infrastructure software markets, particularly for regulated organisations that want a choice between outsourced operations and in-house control. Ailanto aims to address sovereignty and security expectations while offering an S3-compatible service for standard storage workloads.
Cited use cases include backup, application and database storage, and low-latency storage for website and eCommerce hosting. These are common object storage scenarios in enterprise IT, where data volumes can grow rapidly, and cost management remains a key decision factor.
Go-to-market
Cubbit will provide technical and commercial support for Ailanto and its partners, including training, sales support, and joint go-to-market initiatives. The companies also referenced service levels and support arrangements, but did not disclose contract terms, pricing, or customer commitments.
Ailanto operates from Lugano and Zurich and is part of a group of three companies. It works with Swiss enterprises and cloud providers across DevOps, infrastructure, systems and networks, storage and backup, cybersecurity, and AI.
For Cubbit, the agreement adds a Swiss system integrator partner as it seeks broader adoption of its approach in Europe. The company describes itself as a geo-distributed cloud storage enabler and says its technology is used by more than 400 companies and partners, including Leonardo and Rai Way.
Sandro Pignataro, Business Developer at Ailanto, said: “We are delighted to enter into this partnership, which builds on an intense preparatory phase and reflects our strong alignment with Cubbit’s values. These translate into concrete benefits in terms of sovereignty, security, resilient optimisation, and geo-distributed architectures. More than a technological solution, this approach provides a strategic and economic compass for a new way of designing and managing our digital infrastructure and solutions.”
Ailanto and Cubbit framed Switzerland as a market in which expectations of local control extend beyond national borders into local jurisdictions. Alessandro Cillario, co-CEO and co-founder of Cubbit, said: “We are proud to collaborate with a Swiss partner with deep technical know-how and a strong local presence, such as Ailanto. This Business Alliance Partnership marks another step in Cubbit’s growth across Europe. Switzerland has long been a market where data sovereignty and control are concrete requirements, especially for regulated sectors and critical infrastructure. We are glad that Ailanto has recognised Cubbit as the ideal solution to deliver high service levels, flexibility of use, and full sovereignty – including at the level of individual Swiss cantons.”