---
title: Cloud engines
slug: cloud-engines
description: Sovereign subnets you configure — choose nodes, providers, and locations. The traditional-cloud experience, hosted on the Internet Computer.
tags:
  - cloud-engine
  - operator
  - sovereignty
date: 2026-04-15
related:
  - internet-computer-protocol
hub: true
---

A *cloud engine* is a subnet you configure and operate yourself. Where the
public Internet Computer is a shared platform, a cloud engine is a private
slice of the same protocol — running the same software, capable of hosting
the same canisters, but with its node set chosen by you.

This is the operator-facing capability: the “traditional cloud
experience” mapped onto the Internet Computer.

## What you choose

When you create a cloud engine, you pick:

- **The nodes.** Selected from a marketplace of node providers. Filter by
  jurisdiction, by hardware spec, by uptime history.
- **Their geographies.** Physical placement, for sovereignty / latency
  reasons.
- **The provider mix.** Diversify across providers so no single one can
  affect availability.
- **Replication factor.** The number of nodes that hold and execute each
  canister. More nodes → more fault tolerance.

## What stays the same

Once a cloud engine is running, hosted apps see no difference from the
public network. Canisters still work the same way. Chain-key cryptography
still works the same way. Reverse gas still works the same way.

What changes is *who* runs the underlying hardware, and *where* it lives.

## Where to spin one up

The cloud-engine wizard lives at
[opencloud.org](https://opencloud.org/) — that’s a sibling site,
operated separately from this one, dedicated to the operator workflow.

## Related

- [`Internet Computer Protocol`](/wiki/internet-computer-protocol/) — the underlying network.
- [`Chain-key cryptography`](/wiki/chain-key-cryptography/) — the engine that lets a subnet sign for itself.