About Aruba
Aruba S.p.A. is an Italian technology company founded in 1994 and headquartered in Arezzo, Italy. It has grown into one of the largest IT infrastructure and digital services providers in Europe, operating its own data centers in Italy and the Czech Republic. Aruba is unique in that it covers an unusually broad range of services — from web hosting and cloud infrastructure to digital identity, certified email (PEC), and digital signature solutions.
This review focuses on its cloud and hosting portfolio to help you evaluate whether Aruba is the right fit for your project or organization.
Core Service Portfolio
Web Hosting
Aruba offers shared hosting plans suitable for personal websites, small businesses, and blogs. Plans are tiered by storage, number of sites, email accounts, and database limits. Hosting infrastructure runs in Aruba's Italian data centers, which is a key advantage for businesses targeting Italian or EU audiences from a latency and compliance standpoint.
VPS and Dedicated Servers
Aruba's VPS lineup spans entry-level instances for small workloads up to high-memory configurations for database-heavy applications. Managed and unmanaged options are available. Dedicated servers are also offered for customers requiring full hardware isolation and maximum performance.
Aruba Cloud (Public Cloud)
The public cloud platform provides compute instances (Cloud Servers), object storage, private networking, and load balancing. It's built on a pay-per-use hourly model with a straightforward resource pricing structure. Aruba Cloud is compatible with standard virtualization and automation tools, making it accessible to DevOps teams and system administrators.
Digital Identity Services
This is where Aruba stands apart from most European hosting providers. It is an accredited CA (Certificate Authority) in Italy and offers:
- PEC (Certified Email): Italy's legally recognized certified email system
- Digital signatures: Qualified electronic signatures compliant with eIDAS
- SSL/TLS certificates: Issued under Aruba's own CA authority
- SPID (Sistema Pubblico di Identità Digitale): Italy's national digital identity system
Data Center Infrastructure
Aruba operates a large proprietary data center campus in Ponte San Pietro (Bergamo, Italy), as well as facilities in Rome and a major campus in the Czech Republic. The company markets its infrastructure as highly resilient, with redundant power, cooling, and connectivity. Its Italian data center locations are especially relevant for GDPR compliance and data sovereignty requirements for businesses operating in Italy and the EU.
Pricing Model Overview
| Service | Pricing Structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | Fixed annual/monthly fee | Multiple tiers by resources |
| VPS | Fixed monthly fee | Managed or unmanaged |
| Cloud Servers | Hourly pay-per-use | Billed to the hour |
| PEC Email | Fixed annual subscription | Various mailbox sizes |
| SSL Certificates | Annual fee | DV, OV, Wildcard options |
Note: Always check Aruba's official website for current pricing, as rates and promotions change regularly.
Who Is Aruba Best Suited For?
- Italian businesses: The combination of hosting, PEC, digital signatures, and SPID under one provider is highly practical for companies operating within Italy's regulatory environment.
- EU-based organizations prioritizing data sovereignty: Aruba's Italian and Czech data centers keep data within the EU, simplifying GDPR compliance.
- SMEs looking for a full-service IT partner: From domain registration to cloud servers to certified email, Aruba covers the full stack.
- Developers and agencies: The cloud platform's hourly billing and standard tooling support make it usable for technical teams.
Considerations and Limitations
- Support is primarily in Italian, which may be a limitation for non-Italian speakers despite some English documentation being available.
- The cloud platform's feature set, while solid, is less extensive than hyperscalers like AWS or Azure for advanced use cases.
- Pricing for some services can be less competitive for purely price-sensitive buyers who don't need the Italian regulatory service integrations.
Conclusion
Aruba is a compelling choice for any organization that operates within or does business with Italy, and a credible European alternative for companies prioritizing EU data residency. Its standout differentiation is the deep integration of digital identity services alongside conventional hosting and cloud infrastructure — a combination few European providers match.