# Insurance for hosting, cloud providers and data centres in Germany

> When a host goes down, all its clients go down with it: shops stop selling, practices cannot find appointments, emails do not arrive. On top come risks other IT firms do not have: cooling, emergency power, fire suppression systems and racks full of servers worth as much as a family home. This page explains how to protect all that and what it costs.

Quelle/Source: https://www.nammert.com/en/business-insurance-hosting.php  
Updated: 2026-09-18

## Does the insurer pay the service credits from my SLA?

Usually not. Flat-rate service credits and contractual penalties for availability are contractual promises and are excluded in almost every tariff. What is insured is statutory compensation when your client demonstrably loses money through a mistake of yours. Word your SLAs so that credits are the only compensation for outages and liability beyond that is capped.

## At a glance

- **Compulsory:** No statutory insurance duty. Larger providers, however, are subject to IT security duties under NIS2 and the German BSI Act, and clients demand proof of insurance
- **Biggest risk:** Downtime and data loss for many clients at once, for example through an attack or a power or cooling failure
- **Basic cover from:** around 2,000 euros a year for IT liability and cyber cover of a small hosting provider
- **Statutory accident insurer:** VBG (the Berufsgenossenschaft for administrative professions), compulsory with employees
- **Often forgotten:** Damage caused when the fire suppression system goes off and power surges from the grid are not covered by every electronics policy
- **WZ 2025 / NACE:** 63.10 Datenverarbeitung, Hosting und damit verbundene Tätigkeiten, 63.91 Web-Suchportale, 63.92 Erbringung von sonstigen Informationsdienstleistungen

## What goes wrong in this trade

- **Outage for every client:** A faulty hypervisor update or a broken switch takes hundreds of client systems down at once. The claims add up.
- **Data loss:** A storage cluster fails and replication was incomplete. Recovery, rework and compensation become very expensive.
- **Attacks:** DDoS, ransomware and hijacked client accounts hit hosts every day. A successful attack is also a liability case towards every client.
- **Power and cooling:** If the air conditioning fails in summer or the emergency generator does not start, whole rows face overheating and hardware damage.
- **Fire and suppression:** A fire in a UPS battery is rare but devastating. Even the fire suppression system going off can damage equipment and stop operations.
- **Illegal content:** Clients store unlawful content on your servers. Cease and desist letters and injunction demands then land with you too.

**Risk radar** (Compared with other trades, 1 low to 5 high.): Liability 5, Fire and water 4, Theft 2, Cyber 5, Downtime 5, Health 1

## The insurance you need

- **Professional indemnity** (Essential): IT liability cover pays your clients' financial losses from outages, data loss and misconfiguration and fights off excessive claims. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-professional-indemnity.php
- **Cyber insurance** (Essential): Covers forensics, recovery, reporting duties and your own lost income after an attack. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-cyber-insurance.php
- **Electronic equipment** (Strongly advised): Insures servers, storage, network equipment and UPS against power surges, overheating, operating errors and extinguishing water. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-electronic-equipment.php
- **Business interruption** (Strongly advised): Pays lost income and the extra cost of a backup data centre and hired equipment after property damage. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-interruption.php
- **Machinery breakdown** (Strongly advised): Insures air conditioning, emergency generators and cooling equipment against machinery breakdown. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-machinery-breakdown.php
- **Business contents** (Depends on the business): For office, stores and spare parts against fire, escape of water and burglary. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-business-contents.php
- **Commercial buildings** (Depends on the business): If you own the data centre building, it protects it against fire, storm and escape of water. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-commercial-buildings.php
- **D&O insurance** (Depends on the business): For managing directors who are personally responsible for IT security and implementing NIS2. https://www.nammert.com/en/insurance-broker-directors-and-officers.php

## What it costs: example prices

What counts is turnover, the number and type of clients, the security level, the value of the equipment and the sums chosen. Certifications and good contingency plans noticeably lower the premium.

| Insurance | Example | Typical range |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Professional indemnity | Hosting provider with 500,000 euros turnover, 2 million euros cover | around 2,000 to 6,000 euros a year |
| Cyber insurance | Hosting provider with 500,000 euros turnover, 1 million euros cover | around 1,500 to 5,000 euros a year |
| Electronic equipment | Servers, storage and network worth 500,000 euros | around 1,500 to 4,000 euros a year |
| Business interruption | Extra costs and lost income up to six months, added to the electronics policy | around 800 to 2,500 euros a year |
| Machinery breakdown | Cooling and emergency generator worth 300,000 euros | around 600 to 1,500 euros a year |

For comparison: IT liability and cyber cover for a small hosting provider cost about as much a year as the colocation rent for a full rack over six to twelve months.

_Guide prices excluding German insurance premium tax, as of September 2026, from our own quoting experience and published tariff examples for IT companies. Larger data centres are priced individually; we obtain the exact quote for you._

- [Finanzchef24: IT-Haftpflicht](https://www.finanzchef24.de/versicherung/it-haftpflicht)
- [Finanzchef24: Cyberversicherung](https://www.finanzchef24.de/versicherung/cyber-versicherung)

## Our suggestions: three packages

- **Reseller** (Web hosting and managed services on third party infrastructure): Professional indemnity, Cyber insurance. Together: around 2,000 to 5,000 euros a year
- **Own hardware** (Hosting provider with its own servers in rented racks): Professional indemnity, Cyber insurance, Electronic equipment, Business interruption. Together: around 6,000 to 15,000 euros a year
- **Data centre** (Operator with its own floor space, cooling and emergency power): Professional indemnity, Cyber insurance, Electronic equipment, Business interruption, Machinery breakdown, Commercial buildings, D&O insurance. Together: from around 20,000 euros a year, calculated individually

## The worst day in the data centre

Six things that really happen to hosting providers, all on a single hot day in July. Tap through the day and see who pays.

- 03:10: A firmware update on the storage cluster fails. 120 client systems are offline for six hours, and three shops claim lost sales. (€65,000, Paid by: Professional indemnity)
- 07:45: A DDoS attack with a ransom demand. Mitigation service, forensics and two days of crisis operation. (€40,000, Paid by: Cyber insurance)
- 11:30: At 36 degrees an air conditioning unit fails and the compressor is finished. (€28,000, Paid by: Machinery breakdown)
- 12:15: Before the backup cooling is running, two racks overheat. Power supplies and hard drives fail. (€85,000, Paid by: Electronic equipment)
- 15:00: For the repair period you rent servers and floor space in another data centre. (€22,000, Paid by: Business interruption)
- 21:20: A client has lost data after a misconfiguration by your team. Recovery and re-entry of data. (€30,000, Paid by: Professional indemnity)

**Damage so far:** €270,000

## Practical tips from your broker

- Cap liability at a fixed amount in your terms and SLAs and exclude indirect losses as far as the law allows.
- Make sure serial losses, meaning one mistake with many injured parties, are not capped at too low a sum.
- Have power surges, overheating, fire suppression systems and extinguishing agents explicitly included in your electronics cover.
- Insure the extra cost of backup equipment and hired devices; it often costs more than the destroyed hardware.
- Check whether the cyber policy also covers outages at providers you depend on, such as your data centre or network carrier.
- Keep contingency plans, off-site backups and certifications up to date; insurers ask about them and set the premium accordingly.

## Why NAMMERT for your business

- **We bundle liability, hardware and downtime:** As a broker we align IT liability, cyber, electronics and machinery cover so that no gap remains between the policies.
- **We know settlement from our own practice:** In boat insurance we settle claims ourselves. We know how to document cause, costs and downtime so that the insurer pays promptly.
- **Several insurers compared:** Especially in cyber, terms and underwriting questions vary widely. We collect several quotes and explain the differences.
- **Family business since 1989:** Free of charge for you, as the insurer pays our commission. You reach fixed contacts, even when things are on fire.

## FAQ

### Which insurance does a hosting provider need?

At least IT liability for losses at clients and cyber insurance for your own costs after attacks. If you run your own hardware, you also need electronics, business interruption and often machinery cover.

### What does insurance for a small hosting provider cost?

IT liability and cyber together start at around 2,000 euros a year. With your own hardware and downtime cover, 6,000 to 15,000 euros is usual.

### Am I covered if a client hosts illegal content?

Defence against injunction and damages claims is included in many IT liability tariffs. What matters is that you check reports promptly and act.

### Does electronics insurance pay for overheating?

Only if overheating and failure of the cooling system are included. That is not standard everywhere and belongs in the policy.

### Do I have to comply with NIS2?

Yes, if you reach the thresholds as a cloud, data centre or hosting service. Management is then liable for security measures, which is why D&O cover makes sense.

### Who pays if my colocation provider fails?

Towards your clients you are liable first. Whether you can take recourse depends on your contract with the provider; a suitable cyber policy can cover your own lost income.

## Request quotes

We obtain quotes and come back with a comparison. Free of charge and without obligation: the insurer pays our commission. You can write in English. https://www.nammert.com/en/business-insurance-hosting.php#anfrage

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NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, insurance broker licensed under section 34d(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act, broker register no. D-C08Q-TOSD4-37. For boat and yacht insurance we act as underwriting agency, not as broker.

NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, Karl-Marx-Straße 4, 15711 Königs Wusterhausen, +49 3375 29 12 77, info@nammert.com. Wikidata: Q141141479.