Developing a "made in France" cloud technology for strategic sovereignty: what are the prospects?
Developing a "made in France" cloud technology today that would cover 100 % of the needs of the French and European economy, in the name of strategic sovereignty, is unthinkable.
The armed forces, a strategic sector if ever there was one, use the best of technological innovation, whether European or American. So the question is no longer whether to use technologies developed in the United States, but how.
The presence of the Gafams is essential within GAIA-X. They represent 69 % of the cloud in Europe, according to figures published in September 2021 in a study by Synergy Research Group. Our industries, all the sectors of our economy, are now using their services to accelerate their growth, increase their productivity and so on.
Unfortunately, our European offerings are not yet as complete; our capacity for innovation is struggling. And since a return to paper and foil is unthinkable, the Gafams must be part of the debate, at the very least to support the change towards a genuine European digital industry.
The limits of European offers and the arrival of S3NS and Bleu
This is why, even if their announcements around SecNumCloud - pre-officializing the obtaining of the qualification even before the creation of the company that will carry it - may be debatable, the arrival of S3NS and Bleu should be a joy for French patriots. It's a way of consuming Gafam services, as we do today, but with a higher level of security and, above all, control. However, it turns out that these initiatives will not allow us to develop our French and European technological capacities. In fact, the €1.8 billion to be invested in these projects as part of France 2030 - €667 million of which will come from public funds - will in fact finance the increased security of the Google and Microsoft cloud platforms, on which the Thalès S3NS and the Orange and Cap Gemini Bleu are based respectively. Worse still, the solutions developed within this framework, which will not be protected by patents, can be freely implemented by the major global platforms.
The new "French champions" and the challenges facing the French cloud industry
The emergence of these new 'French champions' will therefore not accelerate innovation in the French cloud industry. It may even slow it down if the two entities end up - when they become operational - capturing the majority of public contracts. S3NS and Bleu are not the right response to the current challenge. It's a step forward, but not a real vision for the future. And I won't go into the debate on the importance of capital sovereignty as a bulwark against CloudAct, which has been widely debated since the Dutch government's communication.
From my point of view, the urgent need is not to counter the Gafams, but to forge European convictions and create the conditions for the success of the sovereign cloud industry.
In the meantime, current debates are all too often sterile. Firstly, because they ignore the realities of customers and their digital transformation needs, which are systematically forgotten. Secondly, they confuse 'technical' security with geopolitical risk management. The only serious qualification in existence, SecNumCloud , mixes the two requirements. What about an equivalent to the 'nutriscore', which is compulsory for sales in Europe, which would provide transparency on both items? We could even imagine banning cloud services that are too 'toxic' in Europe.
Finally, we are forgetting the most important thing of all: creating a genuine European technology sector capable of innovation and global influence. The geopolitical risk will be reduced when there is a balance between technological imports and exports, with a shared dependence. The scheme announced in France by Bruno Le Maire, making €2.5 million available to ANSSI to help start-ups and SMEs qualify for SecNumCloud, is a step in the right direction. But €2.5 million is three times less than Cloud Temple has invested in its qualification process.