Everything you need to know about the new UGAP "Public Cloud" market 

On 4 October 2024, Crayon, an international player in IT services, and its partner SMLB announced the opening of the new "Public Cloud" market jointly propelled by DINUM, DAE and UGAP. The contract, worth an estimated several hundred million euros, is part of the government's Cloud at the Centre doctrine, which aims to integrate cloud solutions at the heart of public sector IT projects.

The new "Public Cloud" market

Background and objectives

Since 2021, the French government has adopted the Cloud at the Centre doctrine, encouraging public players to exploit the potential of the cloud to develop high-quality digital services. The cloud provides rapid access to digital infrastructure, speeding up projects while making significant savings. It also encourages innovation and the creation of new services for users and government employees.

Market details

The UGAP "Nuage Public" contract, which goes on sale on 4 October, is a framework agreement based on purchase orders. The three-year contract is renewable twice for a further six months. It is aimed at all players in the public or semi-public sector throughout France, including the State, ministries, public establishments, the health sector and local authorities. It also covers the French overseas departments and territories and French representations abroad.

Market players

• La Interministerial Digital Department (DINUM) Digital strategy: co-prescriber. A department of the Prime Minister, reporting to the Minister for Public Transformation and the Civil Service, it is responsible for developing the State's digital strategy and overseeing its implementation.
• La State Purchasing Department (DAE) The French State Procurement Agency: co-prescriber and coordinator for the State. Reporting to the Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, it defines and implements the State's purchasing policy, with the exception of defence and security purchases.
• L'Union of Public Purchasing Groups (UGAP) The contracting authority executes the contract. UGAP is the leading public procurement body in France and has been supporting public sector players for over 50 years, offering effective and responsible solutions and services.
• Pencil and SMLB Crayon: the incumbent in a consortium. Crayon establishes the commercial and technical foundations for a successful digital transformation to the cloud, and SMLB's mission is to simplify and streamline relations between suppliers, customers and end users. In this way, they play a facilitating role in putting market beneficiaries in touch with cloud suppliers and making tools available in a transparent and impartial manner.
• The Cloud Service Providers There will be 15 of them by October 2024, offering their catalogues of cloud services via the selection process orchestrated by the incumbent.

Benefits for the public sector

This marketplace offers free and impartial access to a vast catalogue of IaaS & PaaS cloud services from leading providers. The solutions on offer are designed to simplify the processes involved in procuring and integrating cloud services, thereby increasing automation and improving the efficiency of public services. Thanks to the marketplace, public sector players will benefit from :

• a simplified procedure in line with the public procurement framework
• a discount on the public tariff for service offers
• a personalised selection process via a dedicated portal: cloudpublic.fr

The service catalogue

The marketplace provides access to the service catalogues of 15 Cloud Services Providers in 2 main categories:

• "Trusted external cloud SecNumCloud: ANSSI SecNumCloud-qualified offerings with immunity from extraterritorial regulation, particularly suitable for sensitive data and essential services.
• "Generic external cloud Cloud services: consumer offerings providing access to the latest innovations from the world's leading Cloud services providers, particularly suited to hosting non-sensitive data and non-essential services.

This market offers IaaS (computing, storage, network, etc.) and PaaS (databases, AI, etc.) services already available through the previous market operated by Capgemini, as well as new services: training, support and consulting, as well as cloud provider marketplaces.